Irish aquaculture companies are waiting up to six years to get their licenses renewed, mainly due to a shortage of ecologists conducting mandatory assessments.
Michael Mulloy, a member of the country’s Aquaculture Licenses Appeal Board (ALAB), recently told the Irish parliament’s freshly established fisheries committee that the 295 outstanding applications for either new licenses or renewals are severely delayed.
To alleviate the issue, the Galway, Ireland-based Marine Institute, which conducts the assessments needed for a company to receive or renew a license, “needs to be better resourced.”
“It’s a key issue,” Mulloy said.
Ireland’s agriculture ministry – which administers aquaculture licenses – is currently reviewing a new round of applications for finfish licenses, Mulloy, who is a former mussel farmer himself, said.
Mulloy referred to finfish as the “backbone” of Ireland’s aquaculture sector but highlighted that many farmers in the sector currently operate via a mechanism, established under Section 19A (4) of Ireland’s Fisheries Act, that allows farms to continue operating even if their license has expired until their application for renewal has been processed.
However, Mulloy added that the mechanism doesn’t offer the “same benefits and protections as a full license.”
During the same meeting Mulloy spoke to the committee, Michael Cahill, a member of Irish parliament from the southern county of Kerry, said licensing delays are putting income in jeopardy for aquaculture practitioners unable to draw E.U. grants because their licenses are expired or expiring.
Another Irish member of parliament, Padraic Mac Lochlainn, added that delays in the country’s licensing process are holding back Ireland’s aquaculture potential.
“The Faroe Islands has 1 percent of our population but a bigger aquaculture industry,” he said.
Licensing delays are a longstanding issue in the Irish aquaculture industry, with the aquaculture wing of the Irish Farmer’s Association (IFA) earlier this year calling for longer licenses to prevent further stagnation.
Finian O’Sullivan, who is the aquaculture chair of the Irish Farmers’ Association, told SeafoodSource that the nation’s aquaculture output was just over 35,700 metric tons (MT) in 2023, the most recent year for which there are full figures. This figure, O’Sullivan said, was well off a government target set a decade ago to increase aquaculture output to 87,000 MT by 2024.
