Seaweed Harvesting
Dail Éireann — 2026-07-01
============================================================

Seán Kyne (FG), Galway West

I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive response. I welcome the fact that he expects the MPPS to be brought to the Government in the coming weeks. May I assume, therefore, that MARA is not granting licences pending the MPPS? Is that in abeyance? Is there a formal process? Is it involving itself in consultation on the best way forward in relation to the harvesting of seaweed and the licensing thereof? It is a relatively new agency. It is an issue that no licences have been granted for a number of years.
The Minister of State has said that departmental officials were working on a simplification or a process to allow this. Have we any timelines in mind for that? The most important thing is that there would be a simpler process before any licences would be granted by MARA. It is key that MARA would not grant licences until we have a clearer system, the MPPS and a policy from the Department and that MARA was aware of this. I hope that MARA is sitting on these licence applications and is either rejecting them because of lack of a policy, or else just not dealing with them, and that the Minister of State would be given time to ensure that the traditional rights of seaweed harvesters were protected via whatever process or simplification could be done. It is important - the Minister of State has an opportunity in this - to ensure that this issue is put to bed once and for all, that these traditional rights would be registered in some fashion at no great cost to the harvesters themselves, and that these rights could be handed down to the next generation.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-07-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:06+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-07-01