Consultation
4.The Department conducted an 8 week public consultation between the 17th November 2006 and 15th January 2007 to seek the views of interested parties. The consultation documentation was placed on the Department’s website and advertised in the local press. Three hundred and eleven notification letters were also sent to known interested parties and to those existing fish culture licence holders within those parts of the Foyle and Carlingford Areas which lie within Northern Ireland. The Department felt it appropriate to hold an 8 week consultation period, rather than the standard 12 weeks, due to the necessity to synchronise with the passage of parallel legislation through the Irish Parliament, and also due to the fact that a full consultation on the policy took place in 2000. During the public consultation a substantial number of responses were submitted to the Department requesting that provision be made in the legislation for the regulation of wild shellfisheries in the Foyle and Carlingford Areas. The Order was therefore subsequently amended to extend the Loughs Agency’s existing fisheries regulatory powers accordingly.
