Salmon licence arrears

Operators in Connemara have the highest non-compliance with €723,000 arrears and some companies have failed to pay licence fees in 10 years, the Irish Times online reported. All this in a period when the industry received more than €20 million in grant aid from the EU and exchequer, a spokesman told the news source.

Swirl previously brought the issue of licence arrears to the former minister’s attention in 2009; however, the situation remains as bad as it ever was.

“This evidence only reaffirms Swirl’s view of the shambles with which the Irish salmon farm industry is regulated,” he told the Irish Times.