Mr. Michael Mulloy:

The Deputy asked about the European production, which is an interesting question. Aquaculture is both shellfish and finfish. Finfish is the most valuable species harvested. Shellfish, by volume, is the biggest industry. Shellfish value to volume is lower than that of salmon. In the EU context, with the departure of Great Britain, Ireland is the biggest producer of Atlantic salmon. Obviously, Norway and Iceland are not in the EU.

European shellfish production has flatlined. There are lots of reasons for that. Some are put down to global warming, others to water quality. Ireland has a great opportunity to improve its production of shellfish in particular and finfish because it is perceived as a very clean area to operate with low industry and generally good water quality and good environmental standards. We in the industry would see that we are missing out on a huge opportunity there. In Europe, they have older, traditional industries, but they have generally matured. That is the most accurate summary I can give.

On the salmon production drop and employment figures, I think Ms McManus will be able to discuss why, in 2017, there was a drop in the production of salmon while Ms Morrissey can address the other question.