Ms Teresa Morrissey:

I will just address a few of the Deputy's questions. I thank him very much; there were some very pertinent questions there. He mentioned a one-stop-shop. Would we be in preference of a one-stop-shop? We absolutely would. We have too many shops that we have to stop at at the moment to try to get a license and we still cannot get one. A one-stop-shop is actually referenced in a document called the strategic guidelines for sustainable EU agriculture. It is a recommendation in there. There is also a staff working document from the European Commission around addressing the regulatory and administrative burden. It is referenced in there. In a way, it is referenced in our own licensing review looking at that legislation. The Deputy mentioned a single legislative measure that we really do need to see some movement on. Therefore, we would prefer a one-stop-shop so that at least we would have some certainty around the process because, as I mentioned earlier, part of the problem is that we have no certainty around the process from when we make an application, where it is at in the various stages along that application process, how long each stage is taking and what the expectation could be in terms of a timeline to have the license at the end of that process. If we knew that it would take two years to get a license, that would be a fine thing, but we have no idea. Greece is a very good example of a country or member state that has implemented a one-stop-shop and a single aquaculture Act, and that is working pretty well for it. Denmark has another similar system with a one-stop-shop and a single aquaculture Act as well.

On the national strategic plan, the Deputy mentioned the stakeholder group. Yes, there is mention that it has been established. We are awaiting an invite to be part of that. We met the implementation group. However, the strategic plan is over two years old and we have only met the implementation group once, and that was this year. We could call that progress but, again, it is slow.

As the Deputy mentioned, ALAB is another process. People effectively start all over again in terms of how that process is dealt with. They may as well be starting from scratch in terms of how an appeal is dealt with in their applications. The process takes too long and we have no certainty around how long the process takes. It can take many years to get a decision from ALAB because it essentially has to redo a lot of the assessment work a second time around.