Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister and congratulate him on his appointment. I congratulate also the Chairman on his appointment. I wish to raise a couple of small points. In his introduction, the Minister mentioned that in rural Ireland very few other jobs exist outside of agriculture which is one of the factors we are faced with all the time. I am conscious that the beef genomics scheme payments make up a huge part of the farmer's income, particularly in the part of the country that includes my constituency, which has poor and marginal land, with very small holdings. Farmers depend very much on all of these schemes. Issues that arise all the time are the huge delays experienced by farmers in respect of these schemes and also the ability of farmers to access the national reserve scheme. While many farmers at the outset were concerned about the beef genomics scheme, in particular, and had worries about its complicated nature, at the same time there are still many farmers who want to enter the scheme now and find it has been closed. They want to make sure that happens. If the beef genomics scheme is to reopen, when will it open and for what number of new entrants?

I am interested in the seafood area. It was mentioned that work has been done in respect of aquaculture.

How many new licences have been issued for aquaculture? I am aware there were issues around the bays in respect of getting environmental studies done. How many of those studies have been completed and where have they been?