Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----an environmental impact assessment has been with the Department since 2014 and a fresh application has been made. One of the recommendations of the review was that increased resources be provided to the independent Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board. Has this happened or has the Minister committed to or planned for it? When the departmental officials were with us on the previous occasion, we teased these matters out in detail. I certainly felt we were being stonewalled regarding the further and full implementation of the report and the timeline associated with the implementation of the various recommendations. This is why we asked the Minister, as the political head of the Department, to come before the committee and discuss the issue. I feel we are being stonewalled by him as well. I ask the Minister to let me finish, and then he can come back in. I feel he is still stonewalling us in not grabbing this and ensuring that the various recommendations are being implemented.

As stated earlier, one of the key aspects the review committee noted was that an implementation report or implementation plan should be put together and that this could look at the 30 recommendations, assign responsibility for them, put timelines in place for their implementation and assess resource implications. When we discussed this matter previously, we have requested that the Minister put together a review or implementation plan. He still has not committed to putting in place such a plan. It is accepted that there will be different timelines associated with the implementation of different recommendations. However, as a basic starting point in responding to the report, it is essential that the Department publish an implementation plan on the 30 recommendations and, if it agrees with them, state that each should be implemented and indicate how it will go about achieving them, the timelines for doing so and the resource implications involved.

If, in assessing that, we identify that there is a need for additional resources and if it is felt that allocating those resources could lead to improved growth within the sector and an improved financial return to the economy, it would make eminent sense to examine how they might be allocated.. To get to the nub of the issue, I am seeking a commitment from the Minister to the effect that he will put together a implementation plan together that will include timelines.

I wish to make a few more points. One of the recommendations in the report relates to a reasonable timeline for licence determinations. The report indicated that a reasonable timeline for all new applications after 1 January 2018 would be six months. Another immediate recommendation of the review group was that work commence immediately on the preparation of new aquaculture legislation, having regard to best practice in other jurisdictions and in other relevant consenting systems that obtain in Ireland. When I asked the officials about that at our previous meeting, the answer was that work had not commenced on the legislation because the resources were not available. I ask the Minister for an update on this matter. If that work has not commenced, I ask that it would do so immediately and that he allocate the resources in respect of it. The feedback I have received is that one of the stumbling blocks in terms of the development of the sector is the fact that there is not a streamlined licensing process or specific timelines and that this is leading to a reluctance to commence and proceed with new applications.

In the context of finfish licences, the Minister indicated that the Department is scheduled to formally request operators to submit environmental impact assessments, EIAs, before the end of the year and that it will then engage with applicants regarding these. He went on to indicate that this represents a significant response to the recommendations of the independent Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board. While that needs to be done, the Minister is indicating that his point about finfish licence applications is a significant response to the findings of the review group. It is an essential part of furthering those licences but I imagine that there would need to be clear timelines associated with them in terms of how we can expect those EIAs to be dealt with, answers given and progressing matters once they are received.

On the separation of the licensing powers and the development function within the Department, the chairperson of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission before the committee last week to discuss the proposed unfair trading practices directive from Europe. She stated clearly that she felt a new sector regulator should be established to implement the European directive on unfair trading practices because it was in conflict with its remit of consumer and competition protection. She stated that it is more about the producer than about consumer and competition protection and that there would be tension between those two functions, that it would not be appropriate to have the same person dealing with that tension and that two separate bodies would be needed. Similarly, while licensing is a function of the Department, development can often be in tension with it yet we have a situation where the same people are dealing with those functions. There should be a healthy tension in that regard. That is something that would need to be considered. It is one of the 30 recommendations. If we were to see the implementation plan, that is something that could be fleshed out and addressed and on which we could get a clear line of sight in terms of what the Department's response will be to it.