Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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196. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of aquaculture licence applications awaiting processing in his Department; the number waiting for more than 12 months; the number of licences granted by his Department in each of the past four years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19502/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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At present there are 625 aquaculture licence applications awaiting determination, of which 530 have been waiting for a period of over 12 months. The number of licences issued in each of the past four years is as follows:

The majority of areas in which aquaculture licence determinations are pending are designated as Special Areas of Conservation under the EU Habitats Directive and/or Special Protection Areas under the EU Birds Directive (Natura sites). My Department is constrained by law from issuing or renewing aquaculture licences for sites located within these areas until such time as Appropriate Assessments have been conducted for the purpose of environmental compliance with these Directives.

My Department is working with the Marine Institute, Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the National Parks and Wildlife Service through a multi-annual work programme for aquaculture sites located within Natura areas. All of the baseline data on habitats and species for ‘natura’ areas has been acquired allowing for the Conservation Objectives to be set. This will enable all new and renewal aquaculture applications to be assessed in accordance with EU legislative requirements. A key factor of this work programme is the identification of prioritised bays based on the number of aquaculture sites and also the ready availability of scientific data and other factors. The prioritised list of bays is kept under continuous review by my Department in order to facilitate the optimum use of scientific and other resources.

The Appropriate Assessment process has now been completed in respect of twelve bays – Castlemaine Harbour, Roaringwater Bay, Dundalk Bay, Lough Swilly, Donegal Bay, Dungarvan Harbour, Ballycotton Bay, Kenmare Bay, Valentia Harbour/Portmagee Channel, Galway Bay, Clew Bay and Drumcliff Bay. While these Appropriate Assessments are carried out on a bay by bay basis, each licence application within a bay must be assessed individually. Factors to be considered include location of the sites within a bay, species, scale and intensity of production, potential visual impact etc.

A significant number of aquaculture licence determinations have been made in respect of three Natura sites, Castlemaine, Roaringwater and Donegal Bay. My Department is currently examining the outcome of the remaining Appropriate Assessments which have been received to date, with a view to formulating policy recommendations in respect of individual licences held by operators in those bays. Such policy recommendations will take account of all national and EU legislative requirements and will reflect full engineering, scientific, environmental, legal and public policy aspects of each licence application. Work is ongoing in this area and it is anticipated that a significant number of licence determinations will be achieved this year.

In addition to the Natura requirements, under the Environmental Impact Assessment Directive, all licence applications must undergo an Environmental Impact Screening Assessment. This requires significant input from my Department’s scientific and technical advisors.