Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators Ó Clochartaigh and Conway-Walsh for raising this matter. We are three Member of the Oireachtas from the west of Ireland so we are well aware of the importance of the west coast and the Wild Atlantic Way. I know a company in Quilty in County Clare which has 30 people employed in seafood products and exporting to China so it is an important issue to raise.

The role of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in regard to harvesting of seaweed is to regulate the activity in accordance with the Foreshore Act 1933. In carrying out this task, that Department aims to ensure that the resource is managed appropriately, with the twin aims of protecting the marine environment and allowing for a sustainable level of harvesting by both individual harvesters, including those who have harvested seaweed over generations, and also by companies.

The Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government recognises the valuable and important role that seaweed harvesting plays in the environment, culture and economy of coastal communities, particularly in counties along the western coast. Seaweed harvesting has provided a source of income to traditional harvesters for generations. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, very clearly understands the concerns raised by both the sale of Arramara Teoranta by Údarás na Gaeltachta in 2014, and the applications to harvest seaweed by companies which have been received by his Department.

During the course of assessing these licence applications, it became clear that certain rights to harvest seaweed exist and the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is in a process of assessing, with the assistance of the Attorney General, the legal interface and relationship between these traditional harvesting rights and the current applications. Accordingly, these applications by companies are effectively on hold until the Department receives definitive legal advice from the Attorney General on this matter.

This is a very complex legal issue. In trying to fully establish the implications of the interaction between these existing seaweed harvesting rights and the applications for licences by companies officials of the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government have met with the Attorney General on a number of occasions to discuss this matter.

The aim, of course, is to bring clarity to the regulatory regime applying to the harvesting of wild seaweed to all parties and especially to the question of the rights held by traditional harvesters. It is expected that this matter will be concluded by mid-2017, or earlier if possible. Officials from the Department have met with several applicants to explain the complexities of the situation to them.

I to take this opportunity to assure Senators Ó Clochartaigh and Conway-Walsh that no decisions have yet been reached on the applications currently on hold in the Department. The work is ongoing and once it is finalised my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, will give definitive clarification around the rights of traditional harvesters and make a decision on the position regarding the existing applications from companies to harvest wild seaweed.