Could seaweed gathering be privatised?  

Could seaweed gathering be privatised?

Public meeting to be held in Belmullet on divisive seaweed and foreshore licensing  

A seaweed and foreshore licensing public meeting will be held in the Talbot Hotel, Belmullet this Thursday at 7pm. 
The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the implications of moves to privatise seaweed cutting along the coast of Mayo. Arramara Teoranta is a state-owned body that is seeking permission to control the huge seaweed resource along the Western seaboard. At present, ÚdarΡs na Gaeltachta holds 100 percent of the company shares.
The meeting has been arranged by Sinn Féin’s Cllr Rose Conway-Walsh, Senator Trevor O’Clochartaigh and EU Candidate Matt Carthy. SeΡn Ó Conghaile, Chairman of the Connemara Action Group on this issue will address the meeting.   
“Now it seems that a private company from Canada is bidding for Arramara,” said Cllr Conway-Walsh. “Sinn Féin is concerned that if control of the licences is handed over to a private company then the people who have lived along the shorelines and cut seaweed will no longer be able to avail of this and other natural resources along the seashore. The danger is that this is just another feature of our lives which this government wants to sell off for privatisation.
“There is no doubt that there is great untapped potential along our coast for greater use of seaweed and for job creation by adding value to the potential harvest there. But it will only benefit our own people if that harvesting and processing is controlled by the communities living there by way of co-operatives or some similar community based approach,” she said.
Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh has submitted a question for consideration for the debate on the adjournment in the Seanad this Thursday asking ‘that the Minister for the Environment clarify the current and envisaged legal situation for seaweed cutters and people extracting material from the foreshore around the country under the Foreshore Act 1933 and subsequent acts, whether they have private title to the foreshore, or not’.
Sinn Féin EU Candidate, Matt Carthy said: “I am calling on the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, to come clean on plans for the future of seaweed harvesting on the Western seaboard, and I await the answers with great interest. 
“The meeting in Belmullet will give us an opportunity to update coastal communities in Mayo on developments in other counties and responses from the minister and his department.”