Seaweed Harvesting
Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-18
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Seán Kyne (FG), Cultural and Educational Panel

I thank the Minister of State and welcome what he has laid out regarding the policy being produced. When this is eventually published it will give guidance to MARA and those applying for licences. In the meantime, I am sure the Minister of State does not want to talk about any individual licence application.
If somebody were to apply for licences at the moment, how would they be treated? As I understand it from MARA, no new licences have been granted since March 2014 because of legal concern at the time. The advice of the Attorney General at the time was that those legal concerns related to the granting of foreshore authorisations in a manner that impaired the rights of persons with traditional harvesting rights for that same part of the foreshore. If applications come in now that claim they are not impacting on the traditional rights, will they be adjudicated on by MARA or left in abeyance until such time as this new policy comes into being?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:44+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-18