Vol. 406 No. 8
28 Tomás Mac Giolla asked the Minister for the Marine if his attention has been drawn to claims made at the recent annual general meeting of the Irish Shellfish Association that shellfish farmers had lost out on EC grants worth more than £1 million because of bureaucratic delays in his Department in handling grant applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
It is a requirement of the European Commission that grants for aquaculture projects will only be awarded where the projects are fully licensed.
My Department accord priority to licensing projects which have a good prospect of attracting EC grants. I have already increased the resources available to the aquaculture and research division of my Department to strengthen the licensing programme.
However, as the Deputy is aware, the process of licensing is a complex one and is designed, inter alia, to protect the rights of other water users.
The position in 1990 has been that nine aquaculture projects were approved for aid amounting to £1,596,824 in the April tranche. In the October tranche a further project was approved to total grant aid of £93,700. Of these, three were shellfish projects, with a total value of £448,095. A number of projects were not approved in both tranches but these remain eligible in future tranches so that there is no question of any loss in this regard.
