Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Aquaculture and the associated angling and tourism interests can coexist. My Department is fully committed to a properly regulated aquaculture sector. We will have no truck with abuses of licences attached to aquaculture operations.

We are significantly underachieving in the context of realising the potential of the Irish aquaculture sector to expand further. My figures are from recollection but I believe we produce approximately 15,000 tonnes. The Scottish produce approximately 100,000 tonnes, and Norway, for example, which along with Chile is considered one of the global leaders, produces in excess of 1 million tonnes. We do not need to have ambition at that scale. We can find a niche in the organic farmed salmon area.

The important point in the context of the question is that there were no reported allegedly farmed stock taken to the Marine Institute or Inland Fisheries Ireland in 2017. The fundamental point is that we will try to ensure at all times that our licences are operated to the letter of the law.

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