Reform of Licensing System Has to Be National Priority – IFA Aquaculture

Addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Fisheries & Maritime Affairs today, IFA Aquaculture Chair Finian O’Sullivan said licence applications and renewals routinely take many years to complete.

“In some cases, aquaculture businesses have operated for a decade or more without appropriate licensing certainty, despite full compliance with regulatory requirements. This level of delay places Irish aquaculture at a significant disadvantage compared with our European counterparts.”

The sector provides essential employment opportunities for rural coastal communities with over 1,800 direct jobs and over 15,000 indirect jobs in seafood processing and marine ancillary services sectors. Irish Aquaculture produce is worth €211m in production value from a production volume of 38,500 tonnes, according to the latest BIM Business of Seafood 2024.

Gross Value Added (GVA) to the Irish economy in 2024 was estimated at €73m. This value and volume of Irish aquaculture production could be significantly increased by optimising the licenced aquaculture space we already have and allowing licence conditions to adapt to innovative, efficient aquaculture production systems.

Finian O’Sullivan said it is now critical that a single piece of legislation is brought forward to implement and underpin appropriate aquaculture policy and bring together all the existing primary, secondary and amended legislation in one single provision.

“The aquaculture sector fully supports robust environmental assessment, compliance with national & EU legislation, and the protection of our marine environment. What we are seeking is a licensing process that is timely, coherent, properly resourced, and legally robust,” he said.

At present, the system is characterised by fragmented decision-making, duplicated assessments, sequential rather than parallel processes, and an ongoing vulnerability to legal challenge. This does not serve environmental protection, public confidence, or sustainable development. Instead, it results in paralysis—where decisions are delayed and opportunities are lost.

Aquaculture Licensing Reform

IFA acknowledges that progress has been made with the Aquaculture licensing review recommendations. However, implementation has been too slow, and significant progress still has to be made.

The Irish Aquaculture sector believes that meaningful aquaculture licensing reform must deliver:

• Legislative reform and consolidation.
• Modernisation of the licensing system with 20-year licences. Clear timelines & certainty for licence determinations.
• Resources, staffing & expertise for appropriate assessment and environmental assessment work.
• Improved access to funding despite licensing delays.
• Examine the validity of a Plan-led approach – a Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for the Irish Aquaculture sector must be examined, to investigate if there are advantages of the plan-led approach.

Concluding, he said reform must now be treated as a national priority. Pointing to commitments in the Programme for Government, there must be an immediate effort to reform, modernise, and improve the aquaculture licensing system. Reducing the administrative burden and having an efficient, transparent system is of benefit to regulators, the wider sector and aquaculture stakeholders alike.

Read the submission in full here.