Fish Farming

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 April 2014

Thursday, 17 April 2014

Questions (213)

Clare Daly

Question:

213. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if in the public interest will instruct his officials to make available the marine engineering division and the Marine Institute reports into the recent escape of 220,000 salmon in Bantry Bay when he states these reports form a very important part of the regulatory function but which his Department officials have refused to release to requestors under access to information on the environment regulations even though this legislation provides that requests for environmental information relating to emissions including discharges and other releases into the environment shall not be refused even in circumstances where the relevant environmental information might otherwise be protected. [18427/14]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The incident referred to by the Deputy is the subject of ongoing detailed examination by my Department.

My Department received a request from a member of the public for the release of certain reports associated with this examination. Following consideration of the request my Department determined that the release of the documents would not be in the public interest under the terms of the Regulation 9(2)(d) of Statutory Instrument 133/2007.