Draft Heads of Bill an Important Opportunity to Address Long-Standing Issues with Aquaculture Licensing System – IFA Aquaculture
Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries and Maritime Affairs on Pre-legislative Scrutiny of Fisheries (Amendment) Bill 2026, IFA Aquaculture Chair Finian O’Sullivan said this Bill is an important opportunity to address long-standing weaknesses and uncertainty in the aquaculture licensing system.
“Overall, the intention to improve arrangements for licence renewal and determinations, strengthen the capacity of the appeals system, modernise enforcement and improve the interaction between aquaculture and foreshore licensing is welcomed,” Finian O’Sullivan said.
“However, we have serious reservations whether these legislative measures will deliver the necessary reforms needed to deliver a licensing system that is efficient, transparent, properly resourced and capable of providing regulatory certainty,” he added.
“This Bill should not only be an opportunity simply to amend legislation, but to create a licensing structure that gives responsible aquaculture businesses the certainty and confidence they need to invest, operate and develop for the future.”
“This will also require the sufficient resources and political will to implement the necessary reforms needed in the aquaculture licensing system,” the IFA Aquaculture Chair concluded.
IFA Aquaculture’s key message is:
- that aquaculture producers need confidence that their licence renewals/applications will be dealt with in a timely manner.
- that aquaculture producers will not be forced to cease operating because of administrative delays outside their control.
- that appeals will be dealt with efficiently.
- that environmental and enforcement requirements will be clear, proportionate and consistently applied.
Read IFA’s submission in full here.
