Written answers

Tuesday, 8 September 2020

Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

Seaweed Harvesting

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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418. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details of all existing seaweed harvesting licences; the expiry date of each licence; the species and volume of seaweed allowed to be harvested; the area the licence covers in the form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21710/20]

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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419. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of existing applications for seaweed harvesting licences on hand; the date each one was received; the species and volume of seaweed sought to be licensed in each case: the area each application covers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21711/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 418 and 419 together.

There are currently no active foreshore licences to harvest wild seaweed.

Some 23 applications to harvest seaweed are on hands. All applications for leases or licences including those to harvest wild seaweed under the 1933 Foreshore Act, when deemed complete, are published on my Department’s website:

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Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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420. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when a decision will be made on an application for a seaweed harvesting licence by a person (details supplied); the details of the issues that arose in relation to the maps submitted with the application; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21712/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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It would not be appropriate for me to comment directly on an individual application which might come before me for determination.

However, I can confirm that my Department wrote to the applicant concerned on 13 October 2019 outlining what is required in order for the pre-application to proceed to application stage. A response in that context is awaited.

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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421. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he plans to regularise matters in order that all seaweed harvesters will be required to have a legal entitlement to harvest seaweed that licences will be available to enable them do so and that persons without licences or legal ownership of seaweed will be pursued legally for non-compliance with the law, in the interest of conserving this valuable resource and ensuring it is used to the highest ecological standards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21713/20]

Photo of Éamon Ó CuívÉamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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422. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on whether it is possible to establish legal harvesting rights for seaweed based on family traditional use; the number of harvesters that have established harvesting rights to the satisfaction of his Department to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21714/20]

Photo of Darragh O'BrienDarragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 421 and 422 together.

In his speech at the Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth Summit in 2018, the then Minister with responsibility for the 1933 Foreshore Act, Minister Damien English T.D. clarified that certain rights, of both a formal and informal nature, to harvest seaweed exist and must be respected in the context of determination of applications to hand harvest seaweed under the 1933 Foreshore Act. This position is unchanged.

The legal registration of such informal rights, such as those that might be held by traditional seaweed harvesters, is a matter for the Property Registration Authority of Ireland (PRAI) and those wishing to register their rights should engage directly with them. Accordingly, my Department has no role in that process.

On the question of licensing, my Department is continuing to engage with applicants who have applied to hand harvest seaweed under the Foreshore Act. I have no plans to extend the remit of Foreshore Act to make it mandatory for those who are currently not required to be licensed to be so mandated in order to harvest seaweed. In terms of the unauthorised harvesting of seaweed, my Department continues to investigate any such reports, which are brought to our attention.

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