Vol. 436 No. 7
143 Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for the Marine when a decision will be made on an application for an aquaculture licence submitted several years ago by a person (details supplied) in County Galway in view of the fact that in July 1993, Deputy Éamon Ó Cuiv was informed that this application was being processed and that a decision would be made shortly and as there has been no decision to date.
All aquaculture licensing proposals are assessed by the Department from the relevant technical and scientific perspectives. Comments or objections on aquaculture development projects are invited in the first instance through a public consultative process (which includes advertisement in the local and national press) and secondly through consultation with the local authority, as well as other relevant bodies such as the Wildlife Service of the Office of Public Works, Bord Fáilte, IDA, the Regional Fisheries Board, the Department of the Environment and the Commissioners of Irish Lights.
An application by the person concerned was recently assessed by the Department's Aquaculture Licence Vetting Committee, a multi-disciplinary advisory committee comprised of technical and scientific experts from within the Department and an expert from the Central Fisheries Board. The committee's deliberations included assessment of an objection to licensing one of the three sites which was lodged with the Department on foot of advertisement of the proposal. With a view to securing the broadest possible range of views on the application for licensing of the sites in question, the committee recommended that the second stage of the consultative process should now be proceeded with and that comments of the relevant consultative agencies should be ascertained prior to finalising its recommendations to me on licensing.
I expect to be in a position to finalise a decision on this licensing application before the end of February 1994.
I have asked the Department to keep the applicant fully informed as to the outcome of the consultative process with the State agencies.
