Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will do the best I can. I thank my colleague, Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh, for raising this matter and I thank the Minister of State for being here. This is an issue that we have been working on in Mayo and along the coast for the last number of years. We are working on it from the point of view of first establishing the ownership of the foreshore, particularly where people have folios there. Like my colleague, I would appreciate clarity, which I think is absolutely necessary, on the current situation. People were very concerned around the sell-off of the State company and the conditions that might have been attached to that because there was not transparency around it. This is an opportunity for us to have transparency.

I will talk specifically on the benefits of seaweed. There are massive benefits for local, coastal communities. I ask the Minister of State today to instruct the local authorities along the coast, including Mayo County Council, to prioritise the production of seaweed and to conduct and support feasibility studies into what can be done with seaweed and the jobs that can be created in that area. Sinn Féin's vision for seaweed, along the western coast in particular, is that we would have many micro-industries, small cottage industries, that could be set up using our seaweed as a natural resource. We have experienced the giveaway of our other natural resources in terms of oil and gas. We are not prepared to let the natural resource of seaweed be relinquished to foreign companies which will exploit it to maximise their own profits as well.