Aquaculture for all

Irish West Coast Losing Fish Farmers

IRELAND, UK - A regular flow of jobs in the fish farming sector along the West coast is being lost because of Government delays, mainly in the processing of licensing applications.

The Aquaculture section of the IFA have claimed that as many 30 jobs per month are being lost out in the salmon and shellfish sectors of the fish farming business – and all because of an administrative logjam, says the Connacht Tribune .

Last week, the IFA outlined to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, some of the ‘cost neutral’ measures which could give a major boost to the whole fish farming sector.

IFA Aquaculture Executive Secretary, Richie Flynn, said that the Government needed to tune in more to the growing importance of aquaculture, a sector which now accounted for over half of the fish consumed worldwide and one third of what was used in Ireland every year.

“No extra funding is required to provide much needed employment and economic activity in peripheral communities, but simply action by the Minister for Agriculture to implement Government policy on aquaculture licensing and capital funding,” said Richie Flynn.

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