Aquaculture Licences

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 July 2020

Tuesday, 14 July 2020

Ceisteanna (825)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

825. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of applications on hand for aquaculture licences; the years that these applications were originally applied for in tabular form; the impact this delay in issuing licences is having on the development of the aquaculture industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15127/20]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine

The detailed information requested by the Deputy will require an extensive examination of my Department’s records and possibly enquiries with other Divisions and Agencies under the aegis of my Department.

The information requested will be forwarded to the Deputy within 14 days.

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51

Further to Parliamentary Question No 825 to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine on 14 July, the information requested is now provided in the table appended to this reply

Shellfish

In relation to shellfish, a backlog developed following a negative judgement by the European Court of Justice against Ireland in 2007 for breaches of the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. In the negotiations to address the ECJ judgement and to enable aquaculture to continue in NATURA 2000 areas in the interim, a process was agreed with the EU Commission and this is being implemented. The process includes data collection, the setting of Conservation Objectives by the NPWS, identifying the scientific interests to be protected in the bays, carrying out of Appropriate Assessments (AA) of the licence applications against those scientific interests and appropriate licensing, taking account of, among other things, NATURA 2000 requirements.

The work involved multiple survey events carried out by a range of contractors. Profiling of aquaculture activity was carried out for all designated bays in order to define the likely interaction between aquaculture activities and conservation features. All of this preliminary work to prepare the foundation for the consideration of licence applications went on from 2009 onwards. The AAs started to become available from 2011 which resulted in an increase in licence determinations.

In 2017, the Department put in place a two year programme to eliminate the backlog of shellfish licence applications as an issue affecting the industry. This programme envisaged the achievement of 300 licence determinations in both 2018 and 2019. Since 2012, the Department has made over 1,200 licence determinations, with 305 and 324 licence determinations achieved in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Although licence applications continue to be processed, the backlog has been effectively eliminated.

In relation to the remaining shellfish licence applications, it will be seen from the date provided that a number of these are longstanding cases. In these cases, significant issues have arisen and the Department continues to work closely with relevant applicants with a view to finding solutions to the outstanding problems.

Most of the outstanding applications were submitted since 2018. This increase in applications is indicative of the vibrancy that has been restored to the industry due, at least in part, to the elimination of the long standing licensing backlog. It is considered a measure of the health of the shellfish industry that licence applications continue to be received by the Department. Every effort is being made by the Department to ensure that a backlog in the processing of these applications does not emerge.

Finfish

The Department currently has 37 marine finfish licence applications on hand (new and renewals) and is actively engaged in the elimination of this backlog. The finfish aquaculture licensing process is considerably more complex than the shellfish licensing process not least because of the requirement for the applicant, subject to the date of the application, to submit either an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or Environmental Impact Assessment Report (EIAR) with the application for a new licence or renewal. The requirement to submit an EIS or EIAR is set out in national and EU legislation. The legislation also provides for significant Public and Statutory consultation in relation to the EIS or EIAR.

A significant number of operators have yet to submit the necessary EIS documentation and, in this regard, it should be noted that the Department has contacted all finfish operators where the necessary EIS in respect of their licence renewal application remains outstanding. The operators have been formally requested to submit the outstanding EIS in respect of their licence renewal applications. This request issued to all operators in December 2018 and it specified the deadline for submission of the necessary documentation to be 30th September 2019. In July 2019, the Minister extended the deadline for the submission of the Environmental Impact Statements to 31st March 2020. This was in response to indications from industry that meeting the deadline would be very challenging. A further extension of the deadline to 31st December 2020 was approved by the Minister earlier this year and remains in place.

Currently, the operators in question continue to operate their salmon farms under the provisions of Section 19A(4) of the 1997 Fisheries Amendment Act. This effectively allows them to continue to operate (after the expiry of their aquaculture licence), subject to the terms and conditions of their original aquaculture licence pending the determination by the Minister of their renewal application.

Number of Applications for Aquaculture Licences that have not been determined, by Year of Application

Year	Shellfish	Finfish	Land-based
2002	7	0	0
2003	2	0	3
2004	0	1	0
2005	0	3	2
2006	3	2	1
2007	3	2	0
2008	5	1	3
2009	1	3	0
2010	4	3	0
2011	3	5	3
2012	3	7	1
2013	9	0	0
2014	9	1	1
2015	13	4	1
2016	12	0	0
2017	4	0	3
2018	21	2	2
2019	49	3	3
2020 to date	15	0	0
Totals	163	37	23
Total Applications Pending			223