Sir, Recent correspondents writing on the subject of salmon farming appear seriously to misunderstand the purpose of the Fisheries (Amendment) Bill, 1996. For your readers' benefit, I would like to set the record straight.
The Bill provides for a comprehensive new licensing and regulatory system for aquaculture - both finfish and shellfish farming. The present legislative system dates back over 17 years and has been acknowledged by all interests to be in need of a thoroughgoing overhaul to reflect developments in the planning code, thinking on environmental issues as well as developments within the aquaculture sector itself.
Drawing on the norms and procedures in planning law generally, the Bill provides for an open and transparent procedure, with full public consultation, for the licensing of aquaculture operations. It sets out explicit and specific parameters for the conditions to be met by applicants. It introduces a new independent appeals procedure, modelled closely along the lines of An Bord Pleanilla.
The membership, functions and powers of the proposed Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board, which are comprehensively set out in the Bill, are designed to ensure balance, equity and accessibility in the appeals process. The Bill also provides, for the first time, comprehensive powers for regulation and enforcement, together with strict penalties for non compliance with licence conditions and other obligations.
Far from encouraging unbridled development, the new legislative framework provides for comprehensive controls and sets stringent standards and conditions for existing and future development of aquaculture. By clearly defining the parameters, the intention is to provide certainty for the industry itself and for third parties.
A careful reading of the Bill should reassure any concerned party that this is a robust framework, containing the necessary checks and balances to govern sustainable development of the aquaculture sector with full regard for the needs and interests of all users of the marine resource. - Yours, etc.,
Media and Information Officer,
Department of the Marine,
Leeson Lane, Dublin 2.,