Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I am conscious that, as he said, mussel dredging is run on an all-island basis with Bord Iascaigh Mhara co-ordinating and providing a secretariat for the mussel boats, but I am told there is a difference in that in Northern Ireland mussel seed fishing grounds remain closed in 2021 as it was seen that there were not enough mussels. The mussel dredgers from Northern Ireland tend to come south to get mussel seed for NI aquaculture areas such as Belfast Lough. The Northern Ireland Government survey of summer 2021 states:

These surveys have indicated the continued reestablishment of this once large seed mussel bed .... [This was a bed at Skullmartin.] We would therefore not recommend opening this bed at this time.

Therefore, I think there remains a serious concern, despite the surveys the Minister of State has cited, that good weather has already facilitated intensive dredging over the recent neap tides and that substantial volumes of mussels have already been dredged up and damage done, both where they were dredged and where the dredged seed was dumped. Again, there is just a lack of information available on assurances about the environmental impact of dredging at this scale and this level will have. There is a concern also that the statutory instrument enables dredging based on assumptions that are not borne out by the reality, one difficulty being that mussel seed is so widely defined in the statutory instrument as to include mussels of any age or size under Irish law.

During the recent by-election campaign, one of the issues I campaigned on was climate matters, in particular protection of the uniquely brilliant environment that is Dublin Bay. I represent Dublin Bay South. When we see this sort of wide-scale dredging being allowed under statutory instruments such as this one, it is important we question them and the environmental impact they have and look for environmental impact assessments.

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