Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. I do not propose to repeat the questions Deputy Ó Cuív asked. On the presentation by the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr. Flynn asked members not to be distracted by irrelevancies. Will he expand on that comment? What are the irrelevancies in this debate?

I was interested in the point that the Department could not deliver licences because it insisted that a licence was a prerequisite to obtaining a grant. Surely grant aid should only be given to people who are licensed to carry out a specific activity.

I accept the difficulties people are experiencing in having licences processed and fully support the two recommendations made in this regard. The joint committee should make a strong statement on the need to clear the backlog of licensing applications.

I have been raising the delay in processing applications since 2011, when I came into the Dáil. I understand it is quite a technical process, but it appears it has been neither resourced nor given a lead Department. It crosses so many different Departments and institutes that nobody has ownership of the licensing process. That has been a big failure. I would agree fully with the 30 week timeframe for the processing of licensing applications. There is no doubt that an investor hoping to get a licence should not have to wait forever to have a licence application processed.

On the environmental pillar and the protocol on enforcement, I wonder whether the witnesses could expand on the difficulty that causes in terms of regulation and enforcement of activity in the aquaculture sector. Any sector must have open and transparent regulation to be reputable. That is vital. It is something of which the sector should not be afraid. It is something that should exist to benefit everybody.

I would be interested to hear the IFA's views on the future of closed containment fish farming. I have made inquiries about the funding. As has been pointed out, there is potential funding of €1 million over seven years for closed containment projects, which amounts to €50,000 per site or application. I know very little about it, but €50,000 probably would not come to within 5% of the cost, rather than of the 40% level of grant aid. That is totally inadequate.

The lobster and crayfish hatcheries are vitally important. It is something that we should be rolling out, particularly in the area I come from in Donegal, because all fisheries have been closed in area 6A and inshore fishermen can only go after lobsters and crabs. Have they any detail about the impact the hatcheries have made on stock levels in the areas where they have been operating? They might expand a little more on that. That is something we should include in any submission we make on the plan. It is interesting to hear the views on it. There are cross-views that this plan probably is not sustainable and is a rush job. It goes back to the fact that under the EMFF we did not get our act together and we did not draw down any funding until maybe the last year of the previous programme. This seems to be a rushed attempt to be in a position to draw down even the limited funding available there. I doubt the Minister will redraft it or put it back out to public consultation, but I wonder whether the witnesses would see any merit in a mid-term review, with a proper and wider consultation process as well.