John Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)

In the past few weeks, since responsibility for marine matters was transferred to what is now the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Minister and I met the IFA aquaculture groups and worked out a plan together. Obviously we had to have discussions with the stakeholders on how we would deal with the licensing backlog. The coastal zone management division in my Department has prepared a detailed strategic plan that takes into account the issues raised by the stakeholders, including the elimination of the applications backlog, the systematic monitoring and enforcement regime, the development of customer service delivery and the implementation of the EU directive on habitats and fish health. We expect to be in a position to roll out the new regime on 1 January and I am quietly confident that we will eliminate the backlog by the end of 2008.

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