This study seeks to examine the economic impact of companies that offer water-based activities (WBA) to their localities in Ireland. Marine based water activities generated €74.3 million in turnover to the Irish economy in 2007 of which €40 million was Gross Value Added. The sector employed...

A short questionnaire was devised during the 4th ISAP conference in Halifax (2011) to gather some information on the algal eating habits of the participants. Responses were also collected from random members of the general public in Galway and Copenhagen. Most phycologists had eaten algae before...

In the European Union, mitigation measures to abate diffuse pollution from agricultural land are implemented under the direction of the EU Nitrates and Water Framework Directives. As these measures are implemented in national policies, a review process will look at the efficacy of the measures...

EU policy geared towards the sustainable development of European coastal areas has incorporated Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) as one of its primary mechanisms to achieve its goal. However, critical shortcomings in the ICZM paradigm have emerged. In particular, incoherence in the...

The paper begins with a review of the contemporary rural development agenda, highlighting the primary policy aims of the EU governance and rural development model. The methodological approach of this study and a review of some of the main economic, social and cultural characteristics of Iorras...

The economic impact of the marine economy is poorly understood at both a national and regional level in Ireland. A recent paper by estimated the economic value of the marine sector for Ireland at the national level. This paper presents a follow up analysis of the Irish marine sector at the...

Discrete choice experiment data aimed at eliciting the demand for recreational walking trails on farmland in Ireland is used to explore whether some respondents reach their choices solely on the basis of the alternative’s label. To investigate this type of processing strategy, this paper...

Farmland can confer significant public good benefits to society aside from its role in agricultural production. In this paper we investigate preferences of rural residents for the use of farmland as a recreational resource. In particular we use the choice experiment method to determine...

Recent research in Ireland has estimated both the national and regional economic value of the marine sector. However, economic activity does not exist in a vacuum. Activities in the marine sector not only directly affect the industries in the sector but also influence other sectors through...

This paper develops and compares two alternative approaches to accommodate scale heterogeneity (also referred to as heteroskedasticity) in latent class models. Our modelling approach compares two different representations of heteroskedasticity, respectively associating the heterogeneity in scale...