Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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113. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in view of the determination process of aquaculture licensing, his plans to carry out an appropriate assessment on Kincasslagh Bay in County Donegal to ensure compliance with the EU birds and habitats directives; when such an assessment on the bay will be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2112/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Kincasslagh Bay is located within Gweedore Bay and Islands Special Area of Conservation (SAC). In order to ensure compliance with the EU Birds and Habitats Directives, an Appropriate Assessment has to be carried out before any aquaculture licensing determination may be made in respect of aquaculture applications for sites in the bay. My Department is working with the Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the National Parks and Wildlife Service to achieve full compliance with the EU Birds and Habitats Directives through a multi-annual work programme. This programme required the gathering of the necessary baseline data appropriate to the Conservation Objectives of aquaculture sites located within designated Natura areas. This data collection programme, which is substantially complete, together with the setting of Conservation Objectives, will enable all new and renewal aquaculture applications to be assessed for the purpose of ensuring compliance with the EU Birds and Habitats Directives. This work is ongoing and a great deal of progress has been made to date.

The Appropriate Assessment process has been completed in respect of a number of bays. While these Appropriate Assessments are carried out on a bay by bay basis, each licence application within the bay must be assessed individually. Factors to be considered include location of the site within the bay, species, scale, etc. In addition to the Natura requirements, under the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, all licence applications must undergo an Environmental Impact pre-screening assessment. This requires significant input from the Department’s scientific and technical advisors. All applications, in compliance with the requirements of the Aarhus Directive, are advertised in order to facilitate public consultation, and submissions or observations received must be considered as part of the licence application determination process.

The list of bays is kept under continuous review by my Department so as to facilitate the use of scientific and other resources on a flexible basis across the full range of bays. A completion timeline for a number of bays, including Gweedore, is part of this review process. Every effort is being made to expedite the completion of the overall process as a priority, having regard to the need to comply with all national and EU legislation.