Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is familiar with an issue that I have raised with him previously concerning a request from Special Bannow Bay Shellfish Limited, which applied in 2010 for a licence in respect of new sites for oysters at Bannow Bay and Woodstown. It is still waiting on an appropriate assessment, as per the regulation. This is difficult to credit three years later. All of the oysters are exported and there is a serious problem with youth unemployment in the area, which this initiative would alleviate in some small way. The company has been informed that places in Donegal and Dungarvan have jumped the queue for assessment. It seems to believe that it is not big enough or good enough. Some people might argue that the Minister has been better for the big farmer than the small farmer. They wonder whether he is also better for the big fishers than he is for the smaller fishers.

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