The company referred to by the Deputy is an Irish subsidiary of a company which is 51 per cent owned by the Norwegian Government. The company which has been in operation on the Fanad peninsula since the early 1980s, employs 150 people, with an annual wage bill of some £1.9 million.
Údarás na Gaeltachta advises that national and EU grant assistance totalling £2.445 million has been paid to the company since 1982 towards capital investment, training and research and development projects in respect of the company's aquaculture production. The company recently received approval in principle for grant aid of some £500,000 towards a proposed investment of £1.5 million in the construction of a new fish processing facility, the details of which are currently the subject of discussion with Údarás na Gaeltachta and the Department.