Mr. Gerard Kelly:

The four of us got new boats, with support from the Government, to develop the mussel industry in Ireland. We each had a business plan to produce 3,000 to 3,500 tonnes that was agreed by the Department and submitted to the EU. The whole country was not even producing 3,500 tonnes when this finished. Not only were there UK vessels, but representatives were advising us on what we should be doing under something called "joint management". Under that, an allocation of the resource was set up. It was called SMAC, although it was unsure itself at times of whether that stood for seed mussel authorisation, allocation or advisory committee. It decided what we got or, in one case, whether we got anything at all.