Press release – June 11, 2018

Press release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine flooding SAC Castlemaine Harbour with hundreds of aquaculture farming applications

DAFM to do away with Environmental Impact Assessments
and Environmental Impact Statements

 

[Glenbeigh, Kerry, June 11, 2018] — In what appears to be a new governmental strategy that will affect coastal areas across the country, the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) has determined that aquaculture activities do not fall under Annex II and thus don’t require an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) screening. This essential document is a checklist to determine if an Environmental Impact Assessment is required for activities in Natura 2000/SAC areas.

The DAFM has also flooded the coastal community of Castlemaine Harbour, which is a Special Area of Conservation, a Special Protection Area, and a Ramsar site, with more than 100 aquaculture applications in the space of 2 weeks. The applications cover a wide area in Rossbeigh-Rossbeigh-Dooks area of the SAC.

The community has a mere 4 weeks to make objections to DAFM.

This area is a Blue Flag beach and a recreational/tourism destination used daily by locals and visitors for swimming, walking, sailing, kayaking, horse riding, and more. Dooks International Golf Links relies on the visual beauty of the area as a key appeal for its business. The area is also a very special marine environmental that plays host to a variety of endangered bird species and flora.

Despite this, the government seems to want to press ahead with intensive aquaculture in this area and to do away with environmental impact statements.

“We’re completely baffled by the government’s actions,” says Save This Beach campaign spokesperson Maurice Murphy. “How can they realistically expect our community to object to 102 applications? It’s ludicrous to call this a democratic public consultation process.”

Save This Beach has been campaigning since last year against intensive aquaculture activity in this area, due to the significant environmental damage it will cause. Like hundreds of concerned citizens, they’ve also outlined several concerns in a previous aquaculture application in March 2018, to which the government has made no determination.

The concerns the group has have been echoed in the Draft Conclusion of the Appropriate Assessment for Castlemaine Harbour completed in May 2018 and posted on the DAFM website. This document clearly laid out that aquaculture activities are likely to have significant effects on the environment.

However, the conclusion also states that 5 “license variation applications in accordance with existing license conditions for the harbour” should be considered. The Appropriate Assessment Report of Shellfish Culture completed in May 2018 states that “only the five licence variation applications and one new application for subtidal mussel rope culture could be consented at this time. No further consenting of licence applications should take place until such time that additional studies are completed and mitigation approaches considered.”

Save This Beach is concerned about the actions of DAFM on several fronts. If the recommendations of the government’s own reports are to only consider 5 applications, and that additional studies are needed, why are they pushing through all these other applications? Which five applications are to be considered?

“This is an exercise in futility, and highly wasteful of community resources,” says Murphy. “Our communities are working hard trying to make a living, and DAFM comes in with these applications that are completely nonsensical. We have serious other concerns with DAFM. Documents listed are not dated on the site, we’ve been refused Freedom of Information requests, and the whole process from beginning to end has been shrouded in lack of transparency.”

Save This Beach its members seek clarification on these applications and on the overall situation:

  • Does DAFM plan to do away with all EIAs for all of Ireland henceforth in the case of aquaculture applications?
  • Has DAFM already determined which five applications they will consider, and if so, why have they flooded the community with 100+ applications?
  • Hundreds of thousands in grant aid have already been earmarked for Kerry aquaculture developers, including some for applicants: How can the government not realise that this prejudices the application process?
  • Why did DAFM allow publication of application adverts before the draft Appropriate Assessment has been finalised?
  • Under the consultation period, the public have 4 weeks to revise and object to more than 100 individual applications, does the public have to tackle each application individually?
  • Will the Minister Creed release a statement regarding his position on the draft Appropriate Assessment; if so, when?

Save This Beach objected to application T6/473A in March this year, along with hundreds of citizens, but the Minister has yet to make a determination on this application, despite pushing through dozens more.

The group believes that the manner in which the Department is dealing with these licence applications is shutting out the public, and is in total contravention of the Public Participation Directive and the Aarhus Convention. Their campaign issues ties in with the broader national debate about the lack of aquaculture strategy when it comes to Special Areas of Conservation.

“The government and BIM (Bord Iascaigh Mhara) are not doing their due diligence in identifying and granting aquaculture licenses, and they’re being sent out without EIS and the appropriate assessments in place,” explains Murphy. “In the absence of a national plan, it’s on ordinary citizens like us to wade through a complicated process, when in fact the applications should never have been posted in the first place.”

–END–

About Save This Beach
The Save This Beach group consists of locals who came together in 2017 to challenge oyster farming in the highly touristic and recreational area of Rossbeigh-Glenbeigh-Dooks, a Special Area of Conservation with that features a blue flag beach, an internationally renowned golf club, holiday homes, and businesses dependent on the thousands of annual visitors. Save This Beach has garnered the support of hundreds of locals, businesses, and Irish and international tourists who believe that this highly pristine area should be protected from industrial aquaculture.

www.savethisbeach.com | facebook.com/savethisbeach

 

About the applications

A full list of the applications is available on the Kerry section of the Department of Agriculture’s website