asked the Minister for the Marine if he will give details of the eight applications with his Department for permission to erect cages on lakes in County Galway; the location of each application; the name of the applicant; and the approximate date of the decision in each case.
Written Answers. - Erection of Cages on Lakes.
94.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 90, 92 and 94 together.
Aquaculture projects are not permitted in lakes where there are major wild fisheries (i.e. trout and salmon) which I regard as a valuable natural resource to be fully developed in their own right. No permits have been issued for full scale fish farming projects.
Applications to my Department to establish projects in lakes are considered by the Department's engineers from the point of view of quantity of water available, rainfall and catchment area whilst the Fisheries Research Centre determines the extent of water quality monitoring which is necessary.
I have recently undertaken a critical examination of the concept of smolt rearing in lakes generally. The requirements for smolts of the aquaculture industry should — to the greatest extent possible —be met in the future from land based facilities using pumped or gravity fed water. As I recently indicated to the House, there are eight applications with my Department at present for smolt rearing projects. I intend to treat these as confidential for the time being as I do not consider that it would be appropriate at the moment to disclose commercial or other details of these applications; each application on hands will be examined personally by me in line with the policy I have outlined above.