Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)

I would like to be associated with the good wishes and congratulations to the Minister on his recent negotiations in Europe.

As previous speakers have said, the growing aquaculture business is worth a lot of money to this economy. The Minister's speech, however, does not make hectic reading. The Marine Institute was put in place to deal with a number of issues. There were three occurrences in July, August and September to which we seem to have no answers. In July the Marine Institute was called in to Donegal Bay. In August it was called in again and in September its scope was widened, but there appears to be no conclusion on the issue. This is very serious because it is an important industry. As Senator Daly said, the aquaculture business in this country is getting a bad name because of a few people. Answers must be found quickly. I support the Minister in taking quick action because it is necessary in this regard.

The aquaculture business and game fishing can exist side by side. As Senator Daly said, sea lice has been in existence as long as salmon and trout has been around. There are critical months early in the year when this is a problem but there are ways of controlling it. What are these critical months? The Minister said in his speech that Marine Institute inspectors visit farms up to 14 times a year. However, if they were to visit them more often during these critical months we could get answers and get this sea lice problem under control.