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Seaweed Harvesting

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 September 2020

Tuesday, 8 September 2020

Ceisteanna (421, 422)

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

421. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage when he plans to regularise matters in order that all seaweed harvesters will be required to have a legal entitlement to harvest seaweed that licences will be available to enable them do so and that persons without licences or legal ownership of seaweed will be pursued legally for non-compliance with the law, in the interest of conserving this valuable resource and ensuring it is used to the highest ecological standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21713/20]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Éamon Ó Cuív

Ceist:

422. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage his views on whether it is possible to establish legal harvesting rights for seaweed based on family traditional use; the number of harvesters that have established harvesting rights to the satisfaction of his Department to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21714/20]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

I propose to take Questions Nos. 421 and 422 together.

In his speech at the Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth Summit in 2018, the then Minister with responsibility for the 1933 Foreshore Act, Minister Damien English T.D. clarified that certain rights, of both a formal and informal nature, to harvest seaweed exist and must be respected in the context of determination of applications to hand harvest seaweed under the 1933 Foreshore Act. This position is unchanged.

The legal registration of such informal rights, such as those that might be held by traditional seaweed harvesters, is a matter for the Property Registration Authority of Ireland (PRAI) and those wishing to register their rights should engage directly with them. Accordingly, my Department has no role in that process.

On the question of licensing, my Department is continuing to engage with applicants who have applied to hand harvest seaweed under the Foreshore Act. I have no plans to extend the remit of Foreshore Act to make it mandatory for those who are currently not required to be licensed to be so mandated in order to harvest seaweed. In terms of the unauthorised harvesting of seaweed, my Department continues to investigate any such reports, which are brought to our attention.

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