Fish Farming

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 June 2015

Wednesday, 17 June 2015

Questions (124, 125, 126)

Clare Daly

Question:

124. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine further to Parliamentary Question No. 223 of 3 April 2014, the reason he replied regarding the inspection of licensed aquaculture sites that he was satisfied that the current inspection regime is satisfactory, when at the same time he provided the European Commission with a programme of measures intended to avoid daily fines for non-compliance with the European Court of Justice case C-418/04, informing the Commission that a dedicated monitoring and compliance unit has been established within his Department to ensure enhanced monitoring and regulatory standards, practices and procedures, and that he had substantially enhanced the existing regulatory procedures and supplements for all other inspections of sites. [24147/15]

Clare Daly

Question:

125. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will outline the very substantial enhancement of the existing regulatory procedure which supplements all other inspections of sites, specifying how it supplements the inspection checklist for marine fish farms which was first published in 2000 and which is currently the sole record of fish farm inspections made available to members of the public. [24148/15]

Clare Daly

Question:

126. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will provide the structure, staffing and resources allocated to the marine fish farms monitoring and compliance unit; the date it was established; the number of meetings it has held; and any work it has undertaken. [24149/15]

Written answers

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

I propose to take Questions Nos. 124 to 126, inclusive, together.

As the Deputy has been previously advised, I am satisfied that the current inspection regime operated by my Department is satisfactory. The establishment of the Monitoring and Compliance Unit referred to by the Deputy has added a further enhancement to the monitoring and regulatory standards, practices and procedures already in place. A key element of the work carried out by the Monitoring and Compliance Unit is the undertaking of Integrated Systems Inspections of selected aquaculture licensed operations to further ensure that all the terms & conditions of the licence(s) are fully adhered to by the operator. This procedure is over and above other inspections of sites carried out in the normal way by my Department and relevant agencies.

The Monitoring & Compliance Unit forms part of the Aquaculture & Foreshore Management Division of my Department and was established following the transfer of certain Foreshore functions to the Department of Environment, Community & Local Government in 2010.

The Unit has a current staffing allocation of 1 Higher Executive Officer, 1 Executive Officer and 1 Clerical Officer. Specialised technical and scientific inputs to the work of the Unit are sourced as necessary from my Department’s Engineering Division and relevant agencies.