Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 February 2022
271. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage if he will ensure that aquaculture is taken under the remit of the Maritime Area Regulatory Agency given that it will be essential for the fair and correct development and management of the marine space. [10628/22]
View answerThe Maritime Area Planning Act 2021, which was signed into law in December, establishes a new agency, the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority or MARA, which will have responsibility for overseeing a new licensing regime in the maritime area.
While aquaculture is not included in this licensing regime, the system designed is sufficiently flexible to accommodate a wide variety of maritime usages and activities which could allow for the inclusion of aquaculture in the future. Any future integration would need to follow careful examination of the existing aquaculture regulatory eco-system and collaboration between myself and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine.
Chapter 9 of the National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) sets out the objectives and marine planning policies in relation to aquaculture. The NMPF will be the key decision-making tool for regulatory authorities such as MARA and policy makers into the future, including in relation to decisions on individual consent applications which will have to have regard to the provisions of the plan in the same way that terrestrial plans form part of the decision making tool-kit in the on-land planning process.
