MEP and member of the Parliament’s Fisheries Committtee, Pat The Cope Gallagher, met with Marine Harvest Ireland, the country’s largest fish farming company, and IFA Aquaculture on the banks of Lough Swilly, Co.Donegal this week to discuss the main points of the “Milana Report” on the sustainable development of European aquaculture.
IFA Aquaculture Executive Secretary, Richie Flynn said: “Pat The Cope played an important role in getting this report through the Parliament, reflecting the importance of aquaculture and seafood to the Connacht/Ulster constituency.
"In highlighting the importance of developing production, striving for excellence and sustainability with high quality seafood products and providing employment in peripheral areas, the Milana report points the way forward for the development of the industry into the future.”
Mr Flynn added: “Ireland lags behind the rest of Europe and our competitors in countries like Scotland in terms of supporting the sector’s development. The obstacles our sector has to overcome in this country are all of the Government’s own making in terms of licencing, lack of funding and miles of red tape. For an export-driven industry based on renewable natural resources, fish farming should be getting all the support it needs to increase jobs and export earnings.”
Marine Harvest Ireland MD, Jan Feenstra, said: “It is important to see Brussels taking a serious look at aquaculture and our role in the future. What we need now is for the Irish Government to wake up to the enormous potential of farmed seafood and give due recognition to the investment and development we have achieved over the past two decades right around the coast.”
Pat The Cope met with Marine Harvest employees at the company’s Scraggy Bay farming site in Lough Swilly. The company now employs over 250 people at farms and processing plants in Donegal, Mayo, Kerry and west Cork. Aquaculture employs 2,000 people farming finfish and shellfish around the Irish coast, producing high quality seafood worth €120 million at the farm gate.
IFA Calls for Action on EU Report
IRELAND - A new report from the European Parliament highlights the vital role played by aquaculture in the economic and social prosperity of coastal areas throughout the community.
