Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)

There is potential for significant job creation in the seafood sector and in particular in the shellfish sector. While I note what the Minister of State said in his latter comments, I can give examples of companies with development programmes and grant approval which cannot be paid those grants and therefore cannot progress with investment and job creation in the sector because of the delay in approving the national seafood development operational programme. We are now in 2009 - two years into the programme. Owing to ideological wrangling between the Green Party Ministers, Deputies Eamon Ryan and John Gormley, and the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Deputy Tony Killeen, jobs are not being created and are even being lost. Market opportunities particularly in France and Italy are being lost. I ask the Minister of State to put a deadline on the matter. When will we see the interdepartmental ideological wrangling between Fianna Fáil and the Green Party come to an end so that the sector can fulfil its potential and create desperately needed jobs?

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