Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Perhaps I will go through the legal advice. It is clear from the advice of the Office of the Attorney General that the Department needs to establish the scale of appurtenant rights to harvest seaweed before it can answer some of the questions that have been raised and process certain licence applications. The Department must take account of any established legal rights, and the aggregate quantification of these harvesting rights, as part of the application process. This requires the Department to identify the folios to all land bordering on the part of the foreshore and the folios to all parcels of land with the exception of urban lands and housing estates within one mile of that part of the foreshore which is the subject of the licence applications currently with it, and to examine those folios to ascertain whether they contain any entries showing a right to take seaweed from that part of the foreshore. I appreciate that the note I have read is probably a little legalistic. If it helps the Senator, I will give him a copy of it so that he can go through it. If he still has concerns about specific aspects of this matter, he might come back to me.