Feargal Quinn (Independent)

It was a very pleasant task. I remember travelling to Bord Iascaigh Mhara in Dún Laoghaire and, along with one or two others – one was Derry Clarke, the owner of L'Ecrivain, the lovely restaurant in Baggot street – being asked to taste 26 oysters. It was very well done. We had to examine each oyster from the 12 or 14 farms we picked in terms of how they looked, how clean they were, how easy they were to open, how they looked inside but particularly how they tasted. I realised that Bord Iascaigh Mhara and those involved actively recognised that if they were going to continue to export and expand that export market, they had to ensure they got everything right.

Senator Finucane referred to something with which I did not quite agree. He said a certain amount of damage was done recently to the fishing industry as a result of what I call some of the scandals that were exposed. It was not a certain amount of damage. The fishing industry is a delicate plant and he was being delicate with the words he used. A huge amount of damage is in danger of being done.

I think back to what happened to the beef industry on 26 March 1996. I had been listening to customers in our supermarket some years earlier, particularly the Dublin customers who talked about their concerns about pharmaceutical companies advertising on RTE radio, directed at the farming community and the beef industry, telling them what they should be injecting into their cattle and sheep or the stock they were producing to avoid certain diseases and so on. The customers, who were not farmers, were concerned about the food they were eating from simply listening to those advertisements directed at farmers by the pharmaceutical industry. Some of us in the business took steps to make sure a traceability system was put in place. When BSE was exposed in March 1996 we realised that not only could a certain amount of damage be done to an industry, but that a huge amount of damage was being done to the beef industry, particularly in Britain. We managed to avoid a great deal of that criticism but one can see considerable dangers, particularly to the fishing industry. It is a delicate plant. When one considers how much depends on confidence in the traceability system and in quality and on the public's awareness, we must be so careful if the public is to buy fish or seafood of any type, particularly salmon.

I was interested in and impressed by the amount of information the Minister of State gave us, some of which I knew already, particularly as regards the quality seafood programme BIM has instituted and how the auditing being undertaken is to ensure it is instilling confidence in the business. I know the auditors are recognised by the industry as being independent and without bias. However, we must go out of our way to ensure that independence is guaranteed and that there is not a danger of any suggestion that there is a bias or an influence. We must make sure there is a strong wall between those on the inside and those on the outside. I am confident that there is and that the quality seafood programme and the recognised certificate that is issued are being adhered to.