Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive reply. I will follow-up on the issue with the growers and perhaps broker a meeting with the Marine Institute. That would be a positive move. I note the paragraph in the Minister of State's statement which read:

The positive finding in Ballinakill Bay necessitated its removal from the surveillance programme in 2011. It is important to note that the current legislation provides for no option other than to remove the bay from the surveillance programme following the detection of one positive oyster in the bay.

The issue of that legislative loophole could be revisited because there is no safety mechanism in place. Four years ago only one contaminated oyster was found in Ballinakill Bay and nothing has been found since. It is hard to say a whole bay is contaminated based on that science. The legislation needs to be revisited in order to allow the bay to be brought back into the scheme, if the Minister deems it to be fit to do so or the European Union agrees that he should do so. Perhaps the Minister of State might ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he was willing to examine the legislation.