Coveney frustrated over aquaculture delays caused by EU rules
“We are being required by the European Commission to put a gold plated system in place for aquaculture licensing,” said Simon Coveney, Minister for Agriculture, the Marine and Food. “Practically every harbour on the island has been designated a special area of conservation.”
He described the licensing process as “incredibly frustrating, arduous and expensive”. With one or two exceptions, such as Bantry Bay, the majority of the bays appropriate for aquaculture are special areas of conservation.
All bays and harbours must be assessed before an application for an aquaculture licence can be entertained. “We are going through that process now. We are targeting each of the priority harbours and there will be decisions by the end of the year. Certainly there will be three bays by the end of the year which will have the facility to accommodate aquaculture licences,” Mr Coveney told the Dáil.
“Unfortunately, while we are dealing with this frustration, we are seeing aquaculture industries developing and expanding in other European countries even though, in many ways, we have better natural resources to exploit that potential in a sustainable way.”
He revealed that many existing aquaculture operators are essentially operating outside of licence, and said that situation is unsustainable.
“Last year, we produced 12,000 tonnes of farmed salmon. This is a hugely valuable commodity. If we were producing three times that amount, we could sell it without difficulty because there is a demand for it.
“Last year, Scotland produced 150,000 tonnes of farmed salmon. Norway produces over 1 million tonnes of farmed salmon and within the next five years that figure will rise to 2 million tonnes.”
Meanwhile, Europe imports 70% of the fish it consumes. “We cannot resolve that problem by increasing our domestic catch of wild fish because stocks will not sustain that. The only way we can deal with it is by expanding aquaculture, and doing it in a way that is clever and suits Ireland’s natural resources.
“That is why we are looking, for example, at moving some aquaculture activity a little offshore, maybe into the lee of islands in certain places. I have asked the Marine Institute to look at appropriate sites where that type of development could be facilitated. Moving activity offshore would also get it out of bays and avoid the sort of objections we saw, for example, in Dunmanus Bay.”
Mr Coveney said there was potential to exploit, in a responsible and sustainable way, the natural resource Ireland has around its coastline for aquaculture.
