Close to EUR 500 million (USD 648 million) of EU funds spent on fish farms was largely wasted, according to a report highly critical of the sector.
It warned that money was handed out without proper environmental and health issues being taken into account — at a time when production in countries like Ireland was experiencing a decline in salmon stocks because of disease.
The report by the EU Court of Auditors said that, in future, EU money should go only to countries where proper national strategies are in place.
Kevin Cardiff, Ireland’s representative at the court, said the six countries it looked at did not have a coherent strategy for the development of aquaculture in place and that, in some, it took up to five years to get a license.
