Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I do not mean to take the Minister by surprise as this matter is too serious for that. The Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment has written to the Minister's Department. I asked the actions taken by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and these will clearly include actions taken following input from the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and the inspection of the independent Marine Institute. The sea lice levels are unprecedented, although I do not have the time to go into detail on them. It is really not relevant anyway as the relevant part of this relates to the fact that the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine was asked to give an urgent update on this by 12 April this year. This followed the concerns raised by the independent assessment and the notice to treat. Following all the orders, the levels of sea lice continued to rise, with the most serious consequences. This rests firmly with the Minister's Department.

Again, I do not wish to put the Minister on the spot but his Department has been aware of this as a response had to be made by 12 April. The Marine Institute has an independent system and if I had time I would go into how it is reliant on the workers on the farms. That is for another day. For the moment, I want to know the action from the Minister's Department on the unprecedented levels of sea lice.

See this speech in context