Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Dr. Beamish for coming before us today. I have a number of questions. On the independent review, it is my understanding there has been a number of reviews carried out in the past into the licensing system. Will Dr. Beamish outline what the recommendations were from those reviews? I assume he has some of those recommendations to hand. Were they implemented? My understanding is they were not implemented. The public cannot have confidence in reviews unless an organisation has a history of implementing reviews. Will Dr. Beamish outline the reviews he is aware of in the past number of years? If Dr. Beamish bears with me a second, I will locate the specific name of the review I am referring to. I understand there has been number of reviews. The Cawley report was carried out in 2006. What were the recommendations that Dr. Beamish recalls? Were they implemented and, if not, why not?

I recommend that the committee sends a copy of the transcript of this meeting to the independent review to feed into its process because we are ahead of the deadline.

We had a situation in Donegal where there was an application for an oyster farm in the Inishowen peninsula. The oyster farm in question got planning permission in the Linsfort beach area of Inishowen. It got planning permission and virtually nobody in the local community had any knowledge of the application. The reason for this was the company in question, which had applied for this licence, was advised by Department officials to put the advertisement in the Donegal Democrat newspaper. Anyone present who knows the geography of Donegal will know the Inishowen peninsula is quite distinct from the rest of the county and very few people in the Inishowen peninsula read the Donegal Democrat, perhaps those from the south of the county who have come to live in Inishowen. There are three newspapers that cater for the Inishowen peninsula and not one of those was requested by the Department to run the advertisement. The advertisement that was published in the Donegal Democratdid not specify the location. It said it was on the shores of Lough Swilly. That could have been anywhere on either side of Lough Swilly. It could have been anywhere from Fanad Head down to Ramelton, Rathmullen, right round to Clonmany at the very top of Inishowen. It could have been anywhere. It was Dr. Beamish's Department's instruction to put it into a newspaper that would not have been read by the local people who may have been interested and did not give specific information about the location. Even though that was the case, when people found out about this in the area and had objections and concerns, they were rejected. There was no acknowledgement of wrongdoing or a failure to ensure appropriate consultation. The Department just said no, that it would not open it up again and that was the end of the story. That is totally wrong. Whatever view the Department may have on oyster farms or aquaculture licensing, it has to ensure a fair process. That did not happen in this case. People are very angry about that in the area.

There is another aspect.

The company which applied for the oyster farm did no wrong. It was a legitimate business which had every right to apply. It took a hell of a lot of abuse up there because it was seen that it had done things by stealth. However, when I investigated the matter, the company advised me that everything it had done had been on instruction from the Department. I need an explanation as to how it happened.

There are people who have concerns and are not happy with the process and how it is carried out, but at the other end of the spectrum the people in the industry are not happy. Departmental officials talk about Food Harvest 2020, aquaculture and its role in creating jobs, and the Department has had companies out to markets across the world. However, the Department is not making decisions in an acceptable timeframe and is not accountable for the timeframes in place. The Government is bringing companies out to these countries in Asia to make those new business deals and create jobs in Ireland. How can a company do that if it does not know what licence it will have and where it will operate from one year to the next? It cannot plan. Why is there not a timeframe in place? Whatever decision the Department makes, to grant a licence or take on board the views of objectors and refuse a licence, which is the Department's business, can it not do so in a reasonable timeframe?

The Department is failing the industry. The industry is not happy with the Department at all. It is not happy with the licensing process and how long it takes. On the one hand, communities are not happy with how they are consulted with and the process and the fact they are not being listened to. On the other hand, the industry is not happy with the Department and feels it is failing them. They feel the Department is regulating rather than facilitating job creation and the development of the industry. On all levels, the Department is getting it wrong. That is why the review is welcome. Will the Department implement the recommendations in the review? It has not done so in the past.