Dr. Cecil Beamish:

Through the period up to 2011 or 2012 was when we began to reach the point at which the first of the conservation objectives could be specified and the appropriate assessments made. In the meantime, renewal applications rested and could not go anywhere. For four years, they just built up. Given that they had all been licensed during the period 1998 to 2000, and they were all ten-year licences, they all dropped into it, as it were. However, they could all still operate. This is the crucial point. Nobody was stopped from operating and we kept the industry going through that combination.

The appropriate assessments started and the determinations could start to be made. The members have the figures in front of them as to what happened in the years as we, one by one, worked through the bays. There are 22 bays done in terms of appropriate assessment and there are 35 bays to be assessed in total.

That is where we are in terms of the first stage of the process.

We have outlined in our opening statement the steps to get from the point where the appropriate assessment is completed to determinations. There are 23 steps for a shellfish case. In the meantime, other legislation has been added to the obligations such as public participation, the Aarhus Convention and environmental legislation. Other legislation elsewhere comes up when we conduct a statutory consultation, as we are required under the legislation, with a range of other players. For example, the people who work in the natural heritage sector say we have obligations to underwater archaeology. When one wants to put oysters somewhere or if there are oysters in the area and one is considering renewing them, we will be asked to conduct an underwater archaeology survey to see if there is something archaeologically important underneath. We must do many different things for various parts of the State as a result of this process, all of which take time. The steps have been set out. We have been very transparent about what is involved.

The independent review group is now considering the process of getting to the point where one has an appropriate assessment and one can begin the licensing process. This work has taken up the bulk of the time but the process is two thirds complete. The group is considering the process from that point to the point of determinations and deciding what can be done.

Aquaculture all over the EU has either been static or declining. The European Commission has conducted a report on the matter. Aquaculture outside of the EU is advancing pretty rapidly. Ireland would like its aquaculture to advance. We are building a completely new licensing framework and structure that will stand the test of time once completed. Once we get through this batch of licences, people will have ten-year licences or longer. We will not have to go through the same procedure again.

Senator Mac Lochlainn has stated the Department is not accountable in respect of the timeframe set in place. No timeframe has been set in place and the reasons are as follows. If one stops in the middle and one needs an environmental impact statement, EIS, then the operator must get one. Various points are raised by statutory consultees. One arm of the State is in the process of handing over State land to one user for ten years or something similar and they have property rights. It is only right when doing so that other users have an input and a say in the process. The Senator will know from the debates on aquaculture licence applications that different users have different sets of interests and all must be accommodated.

In terms of timetables, we certainly are not the fastest. We work under a judgment laid down by the European Court of Justice while others do not. Sooner or later they may end up working under one of those judgments. We want to keep the industry in place, keep it going and make it fully compliant. We must work under the arrangements with which the Commission is comfortable while a negative judgment is in place. We must work in the context of a negative judgment.

Does the Senator want me to talk about the oyster farm at Linsfort?