Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was going to get to the aquaculture licensing review group in the final part of my opening statement. Some 385 submissions were received. There are 30 recommendations which are being considered. I cannot pre-empt what decision will be made, but the Department is currently considering that report. With regard to the Kincasslagh and Gaoth Dobhair bays, I understand the Keadue Strand application has been withdrawn, so it is down to 1,700 to do with the Cruit Strand. I cannot answer why the EIS by the Department was not sanctioned, but nonetheless, 1,700 submissions are being considered, and I expect that is part of the reason for the slowness of the process.

6 o’clock

I would also agree, no more than with an An Bord Pleanála appeal for planning, that at some stage we must have a definite horizon set on appeals for everybody's sake.

Some of the 385 submissions on the licensing review group were from the industry who would say it is too prescriptive. In the previous Dáil, I chaired a sub-committee where one of the areas seen as really having potential was appropriate aquaculture. Given that so many of the bays and inlets being designated under Natura 2000 and the applications relating either to them or adjacent to them, everybody agrees a lot of care is needed.

I would make one final point. It is not indefinite. Every structure, such as trellises, that is put in is removable and much more easily removed than a lot of other big infrastructure developments.

The idea behind the licensing review group's work was to try and make this work more efficiently for everybody, the industry, the developers - if one wants to call them that - and the local communities, so that they work in harmony. Consultation at any stage at the earliest possible point in any process is the key to it.

See this speech in context