Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 23 November 2023
264. Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of finfish aquaculture licences currently up for renewal that have been supplied with all and sufficient environmental assessments that are needed to support the renewal application as required by his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [51726/23]
View answerApplications for marine finfish licences, with some very limited exceptions, must be accompanied by an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR). The requirement for an EIS/EIAR is set out in legislation and relevant applications cannot be considered in its absence. A marine finfish application, whether for a new licence or the renewal of a licence cannot be processed by my Department until a valid EIS/EIAR is received which complies with both national and EU legislation.
My Department’s records indicate that there are currently 30 renewal applications under consideration in respect of marine finfish aquaculture. As part of my Department’s strategy for the elimination of the marine finfish licensing backlog a formal request for the submission of outstanding EIS/EIARs issued to all operators in December 2018 and specified the deadline for submission of the necessary documentation to be 30 September 2019.
This deadline was subsequently extended to 30 June 2021. While all applicants submitted EIS/EIARs in advance of this deadline, a number of the Reports submitted required further review and updates, and work is ongoing with the applicants concerned in order to progress these applications. The applicants concerned have recently been advised that all outstanding information in respect of these applications must be submitted by 9 February 2024.
Once the necessary documents/information are received and the required technical and scientific reviews are completed, these applications will be subjected to both Public and Statutory Consultation in accordance with the relevant legislation.
As these applications are currently under consideration as part of Statutory process it would not be appropriate to comment further on specific applications at this time.
