Joe Flaherty (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

From the heart of the midlands, this meeting has been very educational because, obviously, we do not have many fish farms. Deputy Ring will be delighted to hear that I did holiday in Mayo this year and my youngest daughter saw a fish farm for the first time and thought it was a water park so it goes to show how unobtrusive it is and how aquaculture has evolved and managed to present itself.

I know we spoke about Norway and Iceland, which seem to be the runaway success stories in this industry. Is there a tapering off across Europe if I look at the figures from 2017 to 2022? Is Europe as a whole losing pace compared to Iceland and Norway in terms of production? What happened in Ireland in 2017 such that there was a massive drop from 20,000 to 13,000 tonnes? This probably leads on to my next question. Ms McManus said that the set-up cost for a fish farm is €6 million. Could she give us an overview of who the players in this field are? Are we talking about one company or two or three companies driving the market or are we talking about community operations? Could Ms McManus paint a picture regarding who is involved in this sector?

Could she also tell us more about the number of operators and the number of people employed in the industry? I am sure it is the way it is presented but I am struggling with it. The sector has had to scale back its costs. Has Ms McManus seen a drop off in the numbers of people employed in the sector?

Ms McManus rightly said that Norway and the Faroe Islands are replicating what we are doing. This happens in every business. Someone copies a successful model. However, these countries have also done something such that they are able to scale up their operations. What are they doing that the EU and Ireland in particular need to do?

My final question is on licensing. I was horrified to hear that it could take 11 years and a €6 million start-up cost to get a licence. Ms Morrissey will probably be able to answer that. On the regulatory authority, is it an issue that there are serial objectors in this matter, is it an environmental issue or is it tactical by others not necessarily in the industry, but rivals? What is the motivation for these objections and for hindering? I would like to thank the witnesses. It has been very educational and I hope they will educate me further with their answers.