Under the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 2003 the functions of sea-fishing boat licensing and registration were transferred from the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources to the Licensing Authority for Sea-Fishing Boats which operates on an independent basis subject to criteria set out in that Act. All applications for sea-fishing boat licences are considered by the Licensing Authority for Sea-Fishing Boats. The head of the licensing authority is the registrar general of fishing boats, a senior official in my Department.
The licensing authority informs me that it has been unable to complete the processing of this and other licence applications for the aquaculture fleet segment in the absence of an assessment by appropriate expertise of aquaculture plans submitted with the applications. Approval of an aquaculture plan is currently a prerequisite for the issuing of a letter of licence offer for the aquaculture segment. The licensing authority considers that the methodology used for assessing licence applications for this fleet segment requires to be reviewed and, to this end, is pursuing the matter with relevant divisions within my Department. It is hoped that this issue will be shortly resolved so that the licensing authority can issue substantive replies to outstanding licence applications for the aquaculture segment.