Feargal Quinn (Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate. I speak with a slightly different interest from many of those who contributed earlier, namely from the consumer perspective.

I remember coming back on an aeroplane from a holiday in France five or six years ago and being served a nice meal containing meat, which I realised was the first meat I had eaten for two weeks. I had been away for two weeks and had eaten nothing but fish and I realised that does not happen with the customers in the supermarkets I run because the amount of fish we sell, which is perhaps large compared to others, is a small section of what is eaten. I realised this was a business opportunity and that opportunity had already been identified by the Irish fishing industry, particularly by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, because on a visit around that time to Paris I saw many fish restaurants on Boulevard St. Germain which whetted my appetite. I then discovered that the vast majority of that seafood was from Ireland. The Irish consumers did not see it in our supermarkets and were not nearly as tempted, which is the fault of our retail and fish industries and also the restaurant business.

When I talk about the food people buy in supermarkets, a small portion is fish but in many restaurants, even the restaurant in Leinster House, fish makes up a sizeable portion of the number of servings. One can walk into a restaurant and realise that people eat fish when they are away from home but not necessarily at home. That is an opportunity for the fish industry and one which has been recognised by Bord Iascaigh Mhara and those involved in the fish industry.

Three years ago I was invited by Bord Iascaigh Mhara to judge the best oysters from the oyster farms.