Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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518. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if traditional seaweed harvesters must now register by 2019 in order to retain their seaweed licence; and if so, his plans to roll-out an information campaign to raise awareness of this new requirement. [38351/18]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I took the opportunity in June, at this year's "Our Ocean Wealth" summit, to clarify the position in relation to the legal interaction between applications to my Department for licences to harvest wild seaweed and existing seaweed harvesting rights.

The position is that my Department cannot licence seaweed harvesting in an area where there is an existing right to harvest seaweed. I also clarified that existing seaweed rights holders can continue to exercise their right to harvest seaweed and do not require consent under the 1933 Foreshore Act.

Accordingly, harvesters may continue to harvest seaweed as they have done for many years. They must, however, as has also been the case for many years, respect relevant national and European legislative environmental requirements when harvesting wild seaweed.