In this article ”

Cut Red Tape to Develop Irish Aquaculture, says Farmers Association”

(http://www.thefishsite.com/fishnews/18569/cut-red-tape-to-develop-irish-aquaculture-says-farmers-association), there are some parallels which we could apply to our respective industries wherever we are in the world.

The Irish Aquaculturists have identified the following as roadblocks and how they must be tackled:

• “Focus must be addressed to ensuring a major shift towards better communication, rationalisation and reduction of cost to the taxpayer between all Departments and agencies tasked with overseeing the sector (last count, five Govt. Departments, eight state agencies and numerous local authorities to deal with a sector worth €120 at the farm gate);

• Assign dedicated case officers and deputies to each licence application on hand in the department as points of contact for applicants with clear guidelines and time limits set out for each step of the process. This must go hand in hand with a major drive to increase the basic knowledge of practical aquaculture production among those dealing with the sector.

• Remove unilateral decisions taken behind closed doors in the past 5 years without consultation such as the treatment of straight licence renewals, remove full Environmental Assessment or licence application review requirements for individual licence condition changes, remove demands for information which exceed national and EU law and remove restrictions on access to grant aid in NATURA 2000 areas. Before any new burden is placed on industry in future a full regulatory impact assessment must be carried out first.

• Reduce repetition and cost in paperwork and remove inefficiencies in monitoring, auditing, spot checks and reporting by having a single agency deal with regulation rather than a queue of officials demanding duplicate information on a monthly basis from family run SMEs;

• Both reform and properly resource the Aquaculture Licence Appeals Board to reflect its legal basis or find an agreed radical new form of public consultation;

• Assist producers with practical issues from raising capital based on longer-term licences (currently they only last up to three generations of stock – 10 years) of tangible value to investors to using EU funds to assist in naturally occurring algal bloom or pollution incidents;

• Respect the right of aquaculture operators to grow their produce in clean waters by upgrading waste water treatment works upstream of shellfish and finfish farming;

• Assist and encourage marketing under national quality and environmental management schemes through Bord Bia promotion, improved enforcement of consumer labelling regulations and help displace foreign imports by encouraging more added value be created in Irish processing companies using Irish raw material.

• Focus R&D funding into practical science to promote self-sufficiency in juvenile production, improved growth and disease resistance, logistics, early warning systems for plankton and jellyfish, predator management, adaptation of technology to Irish conditions, etc.
• Use the wealth of environmental, health and industry data collected by the state in a positive promotion of the high standard of Irish aquaculture instead of leaving it to gather unused and inaccessible in a haphazard fashion.“

“It is only through a focus on these deliverables that Irish industry will prosper and coastal and rural areas create jobs and exports and look to the future with confidence.“