On 31 August 2000, the aquaculture licences appeals board granted an aquaculture licence for the cultivation of oysters on a site on the foreshore in Aughris Bay, on determination of an appeal by a number of parties representing local people against a ministerial decision to grant such a licence. A copy of the licence is in the Dáil Library. All aquaculture operations are monitored to ensure compliance with licence conditions. That ministerial decision followed due consideration of objections made to the licence application, notice of which was published, in accordance with the law, in The Connacht Tribune on 24 September 1999 and of the applicant's response thereto. Dúchas – the heritage service – confirmed that it had no objection to such licensing. Notice of the ministerial decision was sent to the objectors.
The aquaculture licences appeals board is independent in the performance of its functions and its determinations may only be reviewed by the courts, on foot of an application made within three months of the date of the determination in question.
The question of designating areas as special areas of conservation or of other heritage importance is primarily a matter for Dúchas. Such designation would not necessarily rule out any aquaculture conducted in a way compatible with any conservation value of the area.
The statutory arrangements in place since 1998 require publication of a notice in a newspaper circulating in the vicinity of the area in question of all aquaculture licence applications and of all ministerial decisions to grant or to refuse to grant aquaculture licences. Those arrangements are designed to ensure that interested parties and the public generally are aware of all such applications and decisions and of their statutory right to comment on or object to applications or to appeal against decisions. Furthermore, the relevant local authority and harbour authority, regional fisheries board, Dúchas, Bórd Fáilte and An Taisce are supplied directly with a copy of all such applications and decisions, in their own right, under those arrangements, with the statutory right to comment on or object to applications, or to appeal against decisions. As those arrangements appear to be working well, I do not propose to change them.
