Ms Teresa Morrissey:

The backlog is not cleared. It is an historical issue. With regard to shellfish, the backlog the Deputy referred to after the licensing review in 2017 was cleared, probably towards the end of 2019. That backlog was cleared with regard to shellfish. There were 600-odd applications regarding shellfish. However, many of those are now due for renewal again because the backlog ate into the ten years of their licence term and once they were renewed, some of the ten years were up again. Some of them are heading into their licence renewal again for that ten-year process so there is a backlog accumulating again in respect of shellfish.

On finfish licences, they were never cleared. That backlog in finfish licences still remains. We are still going through that process. Ms McManus has referred to it a couple of times. Things have progressed slightly in that it has gone through the environmental impact assessment piece. That has been completed by the industry and submitted to the Department and is being assessed by the Marine Institute, which is a huge body of work. It is progressing through public and statutory consultation, so that is some progress but we are a long way from a licence being issued with regard to clearing that backlog.

On the 30 recommendations, does the Deputy want to know where they are at, roughly, in terms of implementation?