Dr. Cecil Beamish:

I thank the members of the committee for the invitation to meet with them today to discuss the management of aquaculture licensing. This opening statement is intended to provide committee members with a broad overview of the aquaculture licensing system and how it operates. I will be glad to take any questions from the committee members afterwards.

An aquaculture licence is required by law for the cultivation of finfish, shellfish and certain marine plants such as seaweed. Some aquaculture takes place on land but the vast majority of aquaculture activity takes place in the marine environment on the foreshore. In Ireland, almost all foreshore is in public ownership and aquaculture activity therefore requires both an aquaculture licence to conduct operations and a companion foreshore licence to lawfully occupy the area of foreshore in question. Even in the rare case of private foreshores, an aquaculture licence is required to engage in aquaculture activity. In effect, aquaculture and foreshore licences are a package. The foreshore effectively grants property rights to state land and the aquaculture licence determines what one can do on the land.

The foreshore is measured from the high water mark out to 12 nautical miles and is approximately 39,000 square km in overall size. It is roughly equal in size to just over 50% of the land area of the State. However, the areas suitable for aquaculture represent a small fraction of the foreshore and, in the case of finfish cultivation, are exclusively on the western seaboard.

The Department considers all applications for aquaculture licences in accordance with the following legislation: the Fisheries (Amendment) Act 1997; the Foreshore Act 1933; the EU habitats directive 92/43/EEC; the EU birds directive 79/409/EEC; the consolidated environmental impact assessment directives 2011/92/EU; and the public participation directive, the Aarhus Convention. The licensing process involves consultation with a wide range of scientific and technical advisers as well as various statutory consultees. The legislation also provides for a period of public consultation. In addition to the above legislation the Department must adhere to a wide range of regulatory requirements and other legislation which impact on the licensing process.

The public participation directive has emerged as a crucial factor in the roll-out of the licensing system as it applies to individual cases. The key aim of this directive is to grant the general public specific rights regarding access to information in governmental decision-making processes on matters concerning the local, national and transboundary environment.

There are three broad types of aquaculture licence applications: applications for finfish or shellfish cultivation in the marine environment, which are approximately 94% of applications; applications for land-based aquaculture activity, making up approximately 5% of applications; and applications for aquatic plant cultivation, mainly seaweed, which is approximately 1% of applications. It is important to note that the harvesting of wild seaweed is licensed by the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government. Within this typology there are a number of subsections including applications for the cultivation of multiple species in the one production area, known as multitrophic aquaculture. A small number of licences for research purposes are in place.

A key component of the aquaculture licensing process is a series of measures designed to address the impact of aquaculture on the environment. This series of measures is known as the appropriate assessment process. The appropriate assessment process arose from a European Court of Justice case against Ireland in 2007. The ECJ declared, in case C418/04, that by failing to take all the measures necessary to comply with Article 6.3 of the habitats directive in respect of authorisation of aquaculture programmes, Ireland had failed to fulfil its obligations under that directive. The EU habitats and birds directives led to the designation of certain bays by the National Parks and Wildlife Service as special areas of conservation and-or special protection areas for birds. These are known as NATURA 2000 sites and most aquaculture takes place within them or adjacent to them.

In the negotiations from 1997 onwards to address the ECJ judgment the Department agreed a process with the EU Commission and NPWS which would govern the State's processing of aquaculture licence applications. This became known as appropriate assessment and includes various steps. One is data collection in relevant bays, which can be quite comprehensive and involves the collection of data on benthos, the sea bed, the bathymetry of the bay, the substrates on the sea bed, the fauna and communities living in the bays, migratory animals coming to the bays and the birdlife around the intertidal areas of the bays.

There is then detailed analysis of the raw data when it is collected. In some cases, multi-year data is needed. The setting of conservation objectives by the National Parks and Wildlife Service has to be done in respect of each of the sites. Following that, the appropriate assessments are carried out to assess the aquaculture sought or being undertaken in that bay against the conservation objectives. That is done by the Marine Institute. The final situation is the determination of licences based on the outcome of the appropriate assessment process.

In broad descriptive terms, it is possible to say the appropriate assessment phase of the application process represents the first major environmental challenge or hurdle for any licence application. The AA process is therefore an essential precursor to the further consideration of most aquaculture licence applications. The AA process is managed in the main by the Marine Institute via environmental-scientific contractors commissioned by the institute to carry out the necessary field work and desk analysis. To date, the Marine Institute has submitted appropriate assessments to my Department in respect of 21 bays. I have provided a list of those, which I do not propose to read out, in my opening statement.

Following completion of the appropriate assessment for a given bay, the licensing consideration process has been estimated to take between 43 and 81 weeks in the case of shellfish aquaculture. It should be noted that the indicative timelines do not relate to finfish licence applications in respect of which a separate environmental impact statement is mandatory under European law and can require a lengthy timeline for completion by the operator. My opening statement sets out the various steps to be gone through in the processing of shellfish licence applications. The steps are in the statement for viewing by the committee.

Some of the key figures that may be of interest to members of the committee are set out in my opening statement. We had the court judgment in 2007. We also had legislation in 2007 which allowed people engaging in aquaculture at that time, whose licence was running out due to the effluxion of time and who were seeking a renewal, to continue their aquaculture licensing activity pending a determination on that renewal. People were able to continue their aquaculture licence activity through this period. Between 2007 and 2011-2012, the process of working out how to cope with the judgment was put together. This included working out how to gather the data that was required across the bays, which, in some cases, was multi-year data if it involved bird life or migratory animals; analysing that data; having the National Parks and Wildlife Service draw up the conservation objectives for that bay; and carrying out the appropriate assessment. All of that process was put together in the 2007 to 2011 period. After that, we began to get to the point where we could begin to start the licensing process. The figures for the number of licensing determinations made since 2012 when that process kicked off are set out here. There were 492 licence determinations made, that is 492 aquaculture operations licensed since 2012. In terms of applications currently on hand, we have a mix of continuing renewals in some of the bays that have not yet been appropriately assessed or where licence determinations have not been made and new applications coming in. That figure is there. There are 612 licence applications currently on hand. It is important to note that in those applications on hand which relate to renewals that have occurred simply because of the passage of time, the operators are allowed to continue their operations pending a determination on those applications.

On 20 December 2016, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Michael Creed, appointed a three-person independent review group to conduct an independent review of the aquaculture licensing process and the associated legal framework. The Minister set out the terms of reference for the review having regard to existing Government policy for the sustainable development of aquaculture as outlined in the Food Wise 2025 report and the national strategic plan for sustainable aquaculture development. The review group will aim to identify changes required to the aquaculture licensing process and its associated legal framework that will deliver licence determinations in a timely manner, having regard to international best practice; support achievement of the actions and priorities in Food Wise 2025 and the national strategic plan for sustainable aquaculture development; facilitate enhanced transparency in the licensing process for all stakeholders; and ensure legally robust licence determinations having regard to EU and national law. The independent review group is currently holding a public consultation to invite submissions on matters relevant to the review, which will run until 10 February.

I hope this statement is of some assistance to members and I will be happy to respond to any questions.