Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the point the Senator makes. My ambition, having engaged with the sector, is to have a system that is fit for purpose, delivers on the potential, recognises the rights of applicants and third parties for the process to be fair and transparent, and, as an imperative, deals with the licence backlog. Until we have done that and made determinations on all those backlogs, the first thing that is needed to grow production is to have a determination on licence applications. That is a critical gatekeeper. There are others. I have mixed views on some of the recommendations. I do not think the Senator would find unanimity within the aquaculture sector on 20 year licences. Although some might agree with them, I suspect a majority of operators might not, including with the costs associated with it. Third parties and non-governmental organisations certainly might not like that we would be giving away rights for effectively a generational period. There would be significant costs that might be beyond the scope of many smaller enterprises. There are 30 recommendations but I make no apology for prioritising, in absolute terms, dealing with the backlog of licences. That is where we are.

Deputy Pringle raised an important point. Will we be caught up again in the next wave? We are doing the second round of appropriate assessments now. We continue to update the database to enable us to make determinations more effectively. We started without any baseline on those bays and what was happening there, and all the criteria we were found against on with regard to our quota. We had a mammoth undertaking and it is important that we do not see that as a finite obligation. It is a revolving obligation because bays change and their biological capacity to sustain wildlife and aquaculture operations is defined at any particular time. It is important that we continue that process regularly.