I presume the Deputy is referring to a salmon farming operation in Killary Harbour and a former salmon farming operation at Portside, Inver Bay, County Donegal.
All marine salmon farming operations are subject to regular inspection under the national sea lice monitoring programme which is overseen by the Marine Institute. Sea lice levels are set with the objective of maintaining levels as close to zero as practicable. The levels determine the use of approved targeted treatment regimes. Irish lice control parameters are the most stringent of all salmon producing countries.
Licence conditions pertaining to the Killary operation set down specific thresholds for average levels of egg bearing lice. These limits are more stringent than those set down under the national monitoring programme. In the case of the Killary operation, the Department notes that the lice threshold was exceeded by the company in early March 2000 primarily because of delays in the availability of a new sea lice treatment, due to reasons beyond the company's control. The Department is satisfied that the company took immediate and effective corrective action to reduce lice levels below the threshold laid down in the aquaculture licence and that lice levels at the farm have since that time remained below that threshold. The Department continues to keep sea lice limits at salmon farms under general review and to closely monitor the levels on all farms.
Under regional programmes of the National Development Plan 2000-2006 £25 million in EU and Exchequer funding has been allocated to aquaculture development. Grant aid in the amount of approximately £750,000 was recently approved for the Killary operation.