Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

I wish Dr. McCarthy all the best. I have looked at the various appeals bodies he chaired over the years. He brings extensive experience. I do not have any concern about his capacity. A big concern when speaking to the aquaculture industry and people who object to licences in various locations is the time it takes to make a decision. There have been a number of examinations of this issue. The recommendations are clear. I submitted a parliamentary question recently to the Minister about plans to increase the number of personnel to examine this. I understand the appeals board is impacted by appropriate assessments from the Marine Institute and other delays outside of its control. I appreciate it is not entirely within the board's capacity. In the aquaculture industry, people say to me they genuinely have no issue with people's right to object, it is just the timeframes.

The industry is completely underperforming in relation to its potential. I said at our meeting earlier that the Faroe Islands has 1% of the population of this State yet it has a bigger aquaculture industry than Ireland. The delay in making a decision, whatever it is, severely impacts the ability of the industry to reach its potential. The planning system on land in terms of local authorities and An Coimisiún Pleanála, the new body replacing An Bord Pleanála, will be trying to cut out the bottlenecks to making a decision. Local authorities have a defined period and then it goes to the next level. That is where the problems have been. What is Dr. McCarthy's vision to make those timeframes reasonable and fair? What additional resources would be required to do that? What is his view on other organisations? The Marine Institute, for example, needs more people to go through appropriate assessments. I cannot understand why it takes so long. I was given an example yesterday of six years waiting for a decision. I think it was on a renewal. That is unacceptable. No industry can survive that. While one is waiting for a renewal, one is operating within the environmental standards of that time. It is not good for the environment that people are operating within them. From talking to people in the industry, they accept the right of people to object. That is sacrosanct in a democracy but they also tell me they want to adhere to the highest environmental standards possible. They just want it to be done within a reasonable timeframe. That was a bit long-winded but I hope Dr. McCarthy is better at being succinct that I am.