asked the Minister for the Marine the steps, if any, he is taking to prevent the introduction of new virulent fish diseases into our natural fish stocks by the importation of foreign stocks for Irish farms.

Since 1972, the importation of live fish and the eggs or young of such fish, has been prohibited except under licence from my Department. In addition the health status of the fish being imported must be certified by the relevant authority in the country of origin on the basis of criteria set by my Department.

Where juvenile fish are concerned, these are examined at source by my Department's fish pathologist to establish their disease-free status before importation can be allowed. As an additional precaution, all materials involved in the transporting of imported fish must be destroyed.

It is my intention to encourage the relatively new fish-farming industry to become fully self-sufficient at all levels of production as soon as possible and thus virtually eliminate the need to import young fish.

I should like to thank the Minister for his reply. Will he give an assurance that our fisheries research centre is in a position to cope with the demands on it. Is a fish pathologist employed at the research centre?

I am satisfied we have adequate facilities at the fish research centre and we do have a fish pathologist. The Deputy will be pleased to learn the fish pathologist is the person about whom we had a debate in the House some weeks ago. I had the pleasure of visiting Abbotstown recently and I was impressed with the facilities available. I am satisfied the centre has the facilities to deal with any problems that may arise. I invite the Deputy to visit the centre to familiarise herself with the facilities.