Eric J. Byrne
Ceist:17 Mr. Byrne asked the Minister for the Marine if he will consider making fish farms the subject of environmental impact studies prior to their establishment; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fish Farms.
Earlier this year my colleague, the Minister for the Environment, introduced Regulations giving effect to the European Communities Directive on Environmental Impact Assessment.
Under these Regulations, an environmental impact study (EIS) must be submitted with licence applications in respect of marine salmonid farms where proposed yearly output would exceed 100 tonnes.
Environmental impact studies must contain, at minimum, certain specified information such as a description of the development proposed; data necessary to identify and assess likely effects on the environment; a description of the likely effects on the environment; a description of measures envisaged in order to avoid, reduce or remedy such effects; and a summary of the foregoing in non-technical language.
The EIS must be advertised and made available for scrutiny by interested parties, who may submit comments thereon to my Department within 28 days of advertising. Under the terms of supplementary regulations which I made, the EIS must also be referred for comment to eight prescribed bodies, as follows: An Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Údarás na Gaeltachta, if applicable, Bord Fáilte, the Central Fisheries Board, the relevant regional fisheries board, An Taisce, the Wildlife Service of the Office of Public Works and the relevant local authority.
The EIS, together with the comments of interested parties, and the prescribed bodies, are thoroughly vetted by my Department before a recommendation on the licence application is presented to me for approval.
The procedure for freshwater fish farms is essentially the same as for marine sites, with the crucial difference that the requirements of the directive are implemented through the planning process. Thus the promoters, when applying for planning permission for the project, must submit an EIS to the local authority. The regulations specify that the following freshwater projects require EIS:—
all salmonid breeding installations consisting of cage rearing in lakes; all salmonid breeding installations upstream of drinking water intakes; other freshwater salmonid breeding installations which would exceed 1 million smolts and with less than 1 cubic metre per second per 1 million smolts low flow diluting water.
In the case of projects whose tonnage would be less than the Environmental Impact Assessment Regulation's threshold — and this would have applied equally to fish farms being established before the regulations came into effect — my Department would require that a considerable body of scientific data be submitted in support of the licence application.
Can the Minister say, since the EC Directive on environmental impact studies came into operation on 1 February, how many of the applications for licences exceeded the thresholds which are set down in the directive and for which an environmental impact study would be required? How many applications did not exceed that directive and, therefore, did not require an environmental impact study to be carried out?
I do not have any statistics in my brief, but I can supply the Deputy with the information from my Department. The question was not asked in fact.
Would the Minister not agree that the problem with the directive is that a fish farm would nearly need to be a fish ranch in order to come under the scope of the directive and that he should, as a matter of policy, require that all fish farms submit an EIS prior to being granted a licence?
The Deputy has not visited many of those farms if he says that the limit threshold indicates a ranch. It does not. Ranching is technically a different matter with regard to the raising of fish. The final paragraph in my reply covers the point made by the Deputy.
Is the Minister aware that there is great public concern in relation to the EIS, that many people are concerned that an EIS is commissioned by the applicant and that hence the independence of the EIS cannot be guaranteed?
We would have to depend on the professionalism of the people who did the study. The Deputy heard of all the people in front of whom it has to go. I dare say that the level of sophistication in the groupings I mentioned would mean that if there was anything false in the assessment the firm would not be employed for further assessments. Professional people are conscious of maintaining their standards and reputation.
Would the Minister not agree that it might be preferable to employ more professional researchers in the Department, from the point of view of independent research, rather than depend on outside people?
No, I do not agree with the Deputy on that. It is sufficient that the structure has to be followed, that the relevant agencies have to be consulted and that then the Department, with all the information in front of them, make the judgment.