Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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2537. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine when an updated national strategic plan for sustainable aquaculture development will be published. [20057/21]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department published Ireland's first National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development in 2015. The Plan is a requirement of the Common Fisheries Policy and each Member State prepared similar plans aligned with the 2013 EU Strategic Guidelines for the Sustainable Development of EU Aquaculture. These plans were intended to cover the period up to 2020, so that they further aligned with the programming period for the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund.

Over the course of the past year, the European Commission has been preparing an update of its 2013 Guidelines. In order to ensure that Member States' National Strategic Plans continue to be aligned with and support implementation of the EU Guidelines and also to align National Strategic Plans with the new European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund for the 2021-27 period, Member States have been working on new National Strategic Plans.

My Department has been working closely with Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Marine Institute in preparing the new Plan and has engaged with a broad range of stakeholders to obtain their views and input to the draft Plan. A Strategic Environmental Assessment of the draft Plan is also ongoing. In due course a full Public Consultation will be undertaken. I expect that the new Plan will be published later this year.