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“ATLANTIC SALMON IS the pinnacle for me of this wondrous journey.”
This wondrous journey into the “story and mythology” of salmon began at the age of five for Mark Boyden as he developed a keen interest in freshwater snorkeling and has led him to direct the Coomhola Salmon Trust, a small research and education facility in Co Cork.
Along the way he has gone on “sea to source pilgrimages” in salmon-rich countries and raced from the Beara Peninsula to Dublin Airport to deliver “specially prepared boxes of salmon eggs” of rare Rhine salmon to awaiting conservationists to repopulate the river in Germany.
He is also acutely aware of the growth of salmon farms in Bantry Bay, where hundreds of thousands of salmon may be enclosed in pens at any one time, compared to the 27 salmon he maintains at his facility.
He has voiced his opposition to Mowi – the world’s largest salmon farm operator – receiving a licence to set up a large salmon farm site at Shot Head in Bantry Bay, held up for a decade now.
“The whole thing of just having that number of fish in a small confined area is a concern in its potential for disease and how these might spread to wild fish,” he said.
Tony Lowes, a director of the environmental group Friends of the Irish Environment, who lives on the Beara Peninsula, thinks there is good reason to be alarmed due to concerns raised by the Department of the Marine (DAFM) over operations at several of Mowi’s sites.
As part of our investigation examining the potential impacts of salmon farming in Irish water, we also closely examined concerns raised in relation to Mowi’s operations, as the largest salmon farming operator in Ireland.
Using Freedom of Information (FOI) and Access to Information on the Environment (AIE) requests, we pieced together concerns raised in internal State reports to find out what the authorities are doing to ensure rules and regulations are being followed by Mowi, as well as other companies licensed to operate salmon farms in Irish waters.
We can reveal:
While Mowi was not prepared to comment on the specific concerns raised, a spokesperson for the company said that it was ranked as the “most sustainable animal protein producer in the world” by the Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index last year.
“Mowi Ireland is committed to producing more food from the ocean in a sustainable way, hence our commitment to organic salmon production in addition to the Aquaculture Stewardship Council environmental and social sustainability principles,” they said.
These achievements, they added, represent an “overwhelming endorsement” of the high standards the company adheres to, with stock welfare and the highest standards of sustainable production “of paramount importance” to the company.
“Our greatest resource is obviously the environment – which [we] have depended on for our continued success for more than 41 years,” they said.
In part two, out yesterday, we examined concerns with the key impacts on the marine environment from salmon farming. In part one, we revealed that the State has granted licences allowing salmon farms to cull small numbers of protected seals.
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Following in the footsteps of the successful Norwegian industry that rose in the 1970s, Ireland’s salmon farms began to blossom in the mid to late ‘80s. In order to set up their business, salmon farm operators must apply for a fish farming or aquaculture licence to operate in Ireland.
This is required for both hatcheries – freshwater sites where salmon are raised to young adults – and for sea farms where the young salmon known as smolts mature in large circular pens in bays before harvesting.
Salmon farming is congregated into a few areas along our west coast – Bantry Bay and Kenmare Bay in the south; bays in Connemara and Clew Bay in the west; and Donegal Bay, Mulroy Bay and Lough Swilly in Co Donegal.
Today, the majority of these areas also have protected status as important nature sites that form part of the EU’s Natura 2000 network. Any salmon farm in or near these areas must undergo an environmental assessment – known as an appropriate assessment – to examine all potential impacts on the species and habitats for which the areas have protected status.
Even if farms are outside protected areas, “intensive fish farming” falls under the EU’s Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Directive as a sector that requires assessment if the State deems the activity is likely to have a significant effect due to its size, nature or location.
The Department of the Marine (DAFM) told us that, apart from some very limited exceptions such as licences for research purposes, an EIA is required for salmon farms and that licence applications “cannot be considered in its absence”.
The EIA process is thorough and also covers a range of social issues such as the impact of traffic to and from a site, visual and noise pollution, as well as health impacts on the general population.
Poor track record
Ireland has a poor track record, however, when it comes to aquaculture assessments and we have been taken to task by the European Commission on this issue.
In 2007, the European Court of Justice ruled that Ireland had breached EU environmental law by failing to put in place a system for data collection, definition of scientific interests and adequate assessment of aquaculture licensing applications in protected nature areas.
In response to this judgment, Ireland agreed on a roadmap with the European Commission under which we would carry out appropriate assessments of all our protected coastal sites with aquaculture farms so as to better inform any future decision to grant or renew licences.
As this would take some time to carry out, involving multi-year data collection and seabed mapping, and due to the fact that many aquaculture licences were due to soon expire at the time, it was agreed that Ireland would temporarily introduce rules to ensure farms could continue to operation until any licence renewal process was completed.
These rules were introduced in the Fisheries Amendment Act under Section 19A(4). Despite the proposed short-term nature of this rule, Section 19A(4) remains intact following a long backlog of aquaculture licences to process.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6490227/
Farms operating without licences
Based on licence information released by the Department of the Marine, as of April this year, 22 salmon farms are currently operating with expired licences and without environmental impact assessments having been carried out.
Our analysis shows that, of these 22 farms – 12 of which are associated with Mowi – eight farms have been operating for between 10 and 15 years as they wait for their licences to be renewed. A further 10 have been waiting between eight and 10 years since they applied for renewal. When granted, licences last for a period of 10 years.
In a statement, the Department said that it’s focus since 2008 has been on the shellfish licensing backlog that has now been “effectively eliminated”. It said that it is now “actively engaged” in the elimination of the salmon licensing backlog.
The Department said that it has now received a number of Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) or Environmental Impact Assessment Reports (EIAR) from salmon farms and that all are due by 30 June 2021.
At this point, the Department will evaluate the records received and make a decision as to whether the farms should be granted new licences, it said.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6393446/
To view a searchable version of this table, click here.
Criticism of the licensing situation has come from all sides, including the industry itself. In 2014, the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) said that the licensing regime was the key barrier to developing the aquaculture sector, calling the system “outdated in attitude at the highest levels”.
Mowi has expressed similar issues, with its legal representative stating in a February 2017 submission in a licence appeals case that the current system is “overly-prescriptive” and “require[s] modernisation”.
The submission calls for four-month deadlines on decisions and for environmental impact statements to only be required for the renewal of a licence where there would be significant changes in environmental impacts as a result of a change in the licensed activity.
A Mowi spokesperson confirmed to Noteworthy that it “shares the concerns of all stakeholders” that the licensing system “isn’t fit- for-purpose”. It said that this was recognised by the State when it commissioned a report to review the regulation of the entire aquaculture sector published in May 2017.
“We are still awaiting the implementation of the findings of that report which relate to finfish, in spite of repeated promises to grow the blue economy and Irish aquaculture by a succession of Governments,” Mowi said.
“Notwithstanding, we are hopeful and confident that recent changes within the Department bode well for a long-overdue improvement in our licensing regime.”
The Department said that the licensing process is “complex and detailed”, including public and statutory consultation. It said that, “despite allocation of considerable resources to the elimination of the backlog”, it is not possible to “definitively state” when the backlog will be fully eliminated.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6393599/
To view a searchable version of this chart, click here.
Environmental concerns over licensing system
Environmental groups, the courts and the European Commission, however, have taken on a separate set of concerns with the licensing system, namely, the potential for environmental impacts from the farms to go unchecked.
The issue was recently commented on, in a case opposing permission for a salmon farm to abstract freshwater from a lake to treat disease, by High Court judge Ms Justice Niamh Hyland, who, as a senior counsel, was regularly engaged by the State in environmental cases.
The aquaculture licence for the farm expired in 2012 and Ms Justice Hyland stated in her January 2021 judgement that counsel for the applicant were “rightly deeply critical” of the Department for the “extraordinary eight-year delay” in determining the licence application.
“Assuming that licences are granted in 2021, that means that the fish farms in question will effectively have been treated as being licensed for a period of nine years without any regulatory body considering the terms of the licence and imposing any necessary controls,” she said.
The European Commission has also taken issue, according to an email sent to the campaign group Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages (GBASC) in April 2020 about the continued use of the S19A(4) rule.
In the email, seen by Noteworthy, the Commission states that it “remains concerned that the review of the existing activities has been too slow. It was originally understood that the process would be much faster and that section 19A(4) was not intended to have a long shelf life”.
From the Commission’s point of view, the letter said, the “assessment of existing permits for aquaculture should be sped up and section 19A(4) removed”. In a statement, the Department said the provisions of Section 19A(4) are “compliant” with the roadmap agreed with the Commission.
Direct impact of licensing limbo
Another group opposing open sea salmon farming, Salmon Watch Ireland (SWI), made an official complaint to the Commission in June 2020, arguing that Ireland had failed to comply with EU law by allowing farms to continue to operate without environmental assessment.
It said that S19A(4) is “permitting marine salmon farms with expired licences, awaiting renewal, to continue in operation indefinitely”. This, it said, “has enabled salmon farms to remain in an unauthorised operational status without any valid licence in force to permit their continuation”.
SWI’s John Murphy, a keen angler since the 1980s, said that the group is still awaiting feedback from the Commission on its complaint.
“The government here negotiated a deal with the EU where they would be allowed a small period of time… to get all the factors examined in these bays from the point of view of the Habitats Directive,” he said. “We’re now 14 years down the road.”
This can have serious ramifications for the marine environment, according to Murphy, as it has caused not just a political but also a legal headache for the State about what action it can take if farms are suspected to haved caused any environmental impacts.
Tony Lowes of Friends of the Irish Environment is of a similar mind. The biggest problem, he said, is in legal terms. “When the licence expires… that licence is dead, it does not exist, it has expired, it does not leave a shadow or a trace. So you cannot amend that licence,” he said.
An additional issue is the lack of graduated penalties for breaches of conditions built into the older licences. Lowes said that this makes it incredibly difficult for the Department to take action when companies are found to be overstocking fish or harvesting higher numbers than allowed.
“We’re locked into this position where we can’t amend the licences [and] we can’t control what’s going on, we can’t discipline them,” he said.
Without penalties, Lowes said that the only option is to revoke a farm’s permission to continue to operate under Section 19A(4), a step that he said is difficult for the Department to take as the decision is immediately open to legal challenge by the companies.
“It’s critical that the licensing system be modernised so we can properly assess what’s happening and grade the penalties to ensure enforcement without this suicidal alternative that we’re presented with. That seems to be the core of the thing,” he said.
This very issue has presented itself in several cases examined by the Department of the Marine in recent years involving Mowi – the world and Ireland’s largest salmon farming company.
Overstocking concerns at multiple farms
Mowi Ireland is part of Mowi Group – the world’s largest producer of farmed salmon – and is responsible for around 80% of Ireland’s production, all of it organic, sold under the company’s ‘Irish Organic Salmon Co’ label.
The company had a turnover of €66 million in 2019, taking in €15 million in profit after tax. As it has a dominant role in the industry, it avails of enhanced bilateral coordination with the Department, meeting with it on numerous occasions over the years.
It has also been in hot water with the Department in recent years over concerns that it had overstocked salmon and harvested higher levels of fish than allowed for under conditions in its licences.
According to an October 2019 briefing paper prepared for the then-Minister of the Marine Michael Creed ahead of a meeting with Mowi’s CEO, the Department was “conducting a formal examination of possible breaches of licence conditions” at farms between 2013 and 2017.
Records were released to Noteworthy by the Department on its investigations into Deenish in Co Kerry, as well as Mowi’s Anny Point (Lough Swilly) and Lough Altan (inland near Errigal) sites in Co Donegal and its Inishfarnard site in Co Cork.
It was only in the Deenish case, however, where Mowi’s subsidiary Silver King was found to have harvested double their permitted annual 500 tonnes of salmon in 2016, that the Minister discontinued the company’s entitlement to operate its licence under Section 19(A)4.
We asked Mowi questions in relation to these cases. The company did not respond to the specific questions and did not take up our offer to carry out an interview with a representative of the company on the issues raised.
In a statement, a company spokesperson said that it “shares the concerns of all stakeholders in that the licensing system in Ireland isn’t fit-for-purpose” and that it is “committed to producing more food from the ocean in a sustainable way”.
It added that it was ranked as the most sustainable animal protein producer in the world by the 2020 Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index that assesses farmed fish producers on environmental, social and governance risks.
The Department said that the decisions made in all the cases “were arrived at following detailed consideration and review of the submissions made and all relevant information available to the Department”.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6443421/
To view a high-res version of this network map, click here.
‘Substantial commercial benefit’
In the Deenish case, data collected from the company during an annual inspection by DAFM’s marine engineering division showed a total harvest of 1,109 tonnes in 2016 – 121% in excess of what is permitted.
In a submission to the Minister in July 2018, John Quinlan, a principal officer in the Aquaculture and Foreshore Management Division of DAFM, stated that the over-harvesting likely “resulted in substantial commercial benefits for the operation”.
Quinlan also raised concern that the rate of harvesting of the salmon could have caused environmental impacts by virtue of excess effluent discharge during the harvest of the fish.
The company has firmly contested that there was a breach of harvesting limits or effluent issues as it transferred live salmon from the farm to Castletownbere quay where it said the harvesting occurred.
A strongly-worded letter from then Mowi CEO Alf-Helge Aarskog to the Department in May 2019 stated that the company “do not accept” that the decision to discontinue the licence at Deenish was lawful.
In the letter, released to Noteworthy under Freedom of Information (FOI), Aarskog said Mowi had instructed its Irish solicitors to “prepare the necessary legal papers to challenge” the decision.
The company subsequently brought a legal challenge and the case is now before the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board (ALAB). As the case remains the subject of ongoing legal proceedings, DAFM said that it “would not be appropriate to make any further comment on the matter at this time”.
Crucial to Mowi’s case is the argument that there is “no express provision” that allows the Minister to bring an end to the statutory entitlement contained in section 19A(4). Similar arguments have been put forward by the company in the other cases, according to records released.
In all cases, both before and after the Deenish decision, however, the Department did not take such strong action, despite repeated warnings from John Quinlan that failure to act could have serious ramifications for the licensing regime in Ireland.
Instead, the Department, concerned about difficulties in proving certain aspects of its case, over the proportionality of the proposed sanctions, and due to legal complexities in respect of the licensing regime, adopted a strategy of revised licence conditions.
Lough Altan hatchery
The earliest case of suspected overstocking was at the company’s Lough Altan hatchery site in Co Donegal.
Data gathered during an inspection in December 2014 showed the site produced over 2.9 million young salmon, or smolts, in 2014 – a stocking rate 17% above the annual limit of 2.5 million – a key condition as part of its aquaculture licence granted in 2007.
In a submission in July 2016, Quinlan recommended that the Minister revoke the licence as the apparent overstocking was a “significant breach” of the licence condition.
“It can be reasonably stated therefore that the Company knowingly breached the terms and conditions of its licence to a substantial degree for clear commercial gain,” Quinlan said.
“To do nothing,” he warned, “is not an option which is desirable or, indeed, available in any meaningful way to the Department in this case”.
Likewise, he said, action such as a “letter of admonishment” would be “tantamount to doing nothing” in the eyes of both the industry and the public, and would “seriously undermine the integrity of the regulatory process”.
In his assessment, Quinlan also argued that the apparent overstocking “can be expected to have a negative impact on the environment as a result of greater intensification of smolts and increased discharges from the facility”.
Discharge licence issues in Co Donegal
In his submission, Quinlan stated Donegal County Council advised the Department that Mowi has “been consistently in breach of their discharge licence conditions, especially in the 2nd half of the year, when fish biomass reaches a certain critical point”.
In the email from May 2016, seen by Noteworthy and originally released to Friends of the Irish Environment under AIE, Dr Joe Ferry, the Executive Scientist at the Council told DAFM that the Council had “persistently asked” Mowi for an action plan to address the problems.
He said that Mowi had “cited economic reasons for not implementing the scale of treatment facilities which their current production rates would demand in order to achieve compliance” with the licence and said that the Council would “welcome” any decision to limit production capacity at the site.
Data released by the Council indicates that allowable discharge levels were exceeded on over 30 occasions between 2011 and 2020 at the site dating back to at least 2011.
The main issue identified is with ammonia, with a Council email to Mowi – then called Marine Harvest Ireland – in April 2013 stating that monitoring data as far back as 2005 to 2007 “demonstrate[s] that compliance with the ammonia condition was problematic”.
Ammonia can be highly toxic to fish in receiving water bodies if not treated before release into the environment and has been identified as a key issue in freshwater hatchery operations.
‘Increased nutrient’ downstream of hatchery
Lough Altan is the source for the Tullaghobegley River, a small yet productive salmon and sea trout fishery popular with anglers.
A letter sent by the Council to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2015 stated that a full survey of the river indicated an “increase in nutrients, particularly ammonia and orthophosphate, downstream of the hatchery”.
Increased phosphate levels can present a risk to normal functioning of river ecosystems, potentially leading to excessive growth of algae or other vegetation.
Although the company provided the Council with an effluent plant maintenance plan, as well as plans and action to improve the operation of treatment plants and sludge removal, the Council detected numerous cases of breaches of levels.
This includes September 2017 when the Council noted “there was fungus in the river and a very heavy green growth in the river from the discharge location downstream for quite some distance”.
Despite warnings over the years that it would recommend prosecution under the Water Pollution Act for repeated ammonia breaches, the Council has only issued warning notices to the company. The latest ammonia level breaches were recorded in September 2020 and March 2021.
When asked why it did not proceed to stronger enforcement measures as it outlined to the company following repeated breaches, Donegal County Council said that it has “taken enforcement action in the form of issuing warning letters to the operator”.
It said that it has sought to engage with Mowi to “bring about improvement in licence compliance over many years”. It added that “steady progress has been achieved and considerable investment has been made over the years” that it hopes to build on in the future.
We also asked Mowi questions in relation to the discharge licence breaches but the company did not respond directly to the questions raised. Instead, a company spokesperson said “Mowi Ireland is committed to producing more food from the ocean in a sustainable way”.
A spokesperson said that Mowi could “double our workforce to 600 in rural coastal locations and invest €20 million in new and existing sites to produce a protein-rich, food in a very sustainable way with minimal carbon output, but we cannot secure licences”.
“In total, we have more than 30 applications just sitting there, most of them have been ‘in the system’ for more than 10 years. In Scotland, the average time to process a licence is 18 months and their industry is worth more than £1 billion annually to the economy. Here we are producing less fish than we did 18 years ago,” they added.
Several other farms have also faced issues with discharge licences, including salmon conservation facilities run by state bodies. These cases can be seen in the table here.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6396021/
To view a searchable version of this table click here.
‘Concerns about the recommendation’
Despite the concerns raised by DAFM’s Quinlan and Donegal County Council, the Department’s Assistant Secretary General Cecil Beamish said in a submission to the Minister in September 2016 that he had “concerns about the recommendation” to revoke the licence for several reasons, including that the case was the first recorded breach of the licence.
He said that he was concerned that the revocation of the licence may not be proportional to “an apparent first offence” on a farm with a licence in place since 2007.
In addition, he said that, while the company’s arguments were “in part rejected by the Department inspector”, it “cannot be easily discounted by the State”.
Beamish recommended that the Minister consider amending the licence to “introduce a stronger real time monitoring of production” rather than revoke the licence that he said was in line with legal advice received by the Department.
This, he said, would be in the public interest as “it would avoid a similar situation arising again and coming to light after the fact by way of a post-inspection”.
Beamish sent his proposed recommendation to Quinlan, who responded in an email on 7 September 2016 to both Beamish and the Department’s Secretary General Aidan O’Driscoll that the evidence against Mowi is “overwhelming”, with “exhaustive legal advice” obtained on all aspects of the case.
Quinlan stressed in his email that the case was important, with “potentially significant implications for the company and also for the Department’s licensing regime”.
The strategy determined on by the Department, namely the recommendation to amend the licence was retained and accepted by the Minister in September 2016. The Department confirmed that Mowi has “complied with the updated requirements”.
Noteworthy asked the Department if it wished to comment further on the decision in this case. It said the decision was “arrived at following detailed consideration and review of the submissions made and all relevant information available to the Department”.
Concerns in Bantry Bay
Soon after this, Quinlan also raised issue with Mowi’s Inishfarnard site in Bantry Bay as a Department inspection in June 2015 found that over 820,000 smolts were brought to the site in March 2014 from a hatchery. This is double the 400,000 allowed for in its licence.
At this stage, the company had been without a licence since 2007 and had sought review of its licence in 2010 to increase smolt stocking rates to 800,000. This was refused by the Department.
The Marine Engineering Division confirmed that the stocking levels “clearly represents a breach” of the licence. However, the company denied that it had overstocked with smolt.
In a submission to the Minister on 21 December 2016, Quinlan again recommended that the Minister revoke the right to operate under S19A(4).
He stressed that, following the recent case at Lough Altan, the company’s actions “cannot be considered a ‘once off’ transgression”.
He argued that it was “difficult to see” how amendments to licence conditions “could be seen as any form of sanction” against the company. “This course of action is not viable,” he said.
Assistant Secretary Beamish again recommended that the Minister amend the licence to set a cap on the number of smolts and to receive pre-notification of stock input to the site. This, he said, would “enable clear real time verification that fish input limits are being reflected”.
“It is undoubtedly an issue that the governing legislation does not provide for graduated sanctions,” he said.
Beamish added that there was a “significant issue of proportionality about an action to close the farm” as there were no previous licence breaches at the site and due to concerns that there is “at a minimum an element of uncertainty about the apparent breach”.
The possibility of legal action also played into this decision. Beamish argued that, as the case hinged on “whether or not the State can prove that the fish inputted were ‘smolts’ and ‘only smolts”, it may be very hard to prove this case to the satisfaction of the Court if the company were to challenge it.
Marine Institute fish movement data presented in Quinlan’s submission, however, showed that over 800,000 fish were moved to Inishfarnard between February and April 2014 from Lough Altan and Pettigo, two of Mowi’s hatcheries that are both licensed to produce smolts.
Still, in late January 2017, the Secretary General Aidan O’Driscoll sent a letter to Minister Creed recommending the proposed amendments even though he said that evidence of overstocking “seems clearcut”. The Minister agreed on 2 February with the proposed course.
When Noteworthy asked the Department if it wished to comment further, a spokesperson said the decision was “arrived at following detailed consideration and review of the submissions made and all relevant information available to the Department”.
The company subsequently appealed the proposed condition changes and has since been granted change of the condition to allow for stocking rates based on the weight or mass of live fish held at a particular time.
‘De facto anti-competitiveness measure’
In a further case at the company’s Anny Point farm on Lough Swilly, an EU protected site in Donegal used by various species of national and international importance, Mowi was found to have harvested an excess of 19.6% over the permitted limit of 1,000 tonnes in 2016.
Mowi disputed that it breached the licence terms and argued that there were no environmental impacts on the farm. This was disputed by Quinlan in a submission in July 2018 where he said the argument that there was no environmental impact “is a matter of perspective at best”.
Quinlan again strongly recommended discontinuing the company’s entitlement, stating that failure, or perceived failure, to enforce licence conditions would “provide an incentive for further non-compliance”, as well as amounting to “a de facto anti-competitiveness measure”.
Assistant Secretary Beamish told the Minister on 11 July 2018 that such a decision would “most likely be subject to legal challenge” and proposed a meeting with the Minister to “illuminate and explore the issues arising” in this case.
No records of any meetings were provided to Noteworthy. When asked if any subsequent action was taken, the Department only said that the “position is as set out in the material already provided” through our FOI request.
An analysis of DAFM inspections of farms between 2018 and 2020 shows that potential overstocking or excess harvesting rates were identified on seven occasions at Mowi farms, including potential excess harvesting at Anny Point in 2017 and 2019.
When asked if any action has been taken in these cases, the Department said it has communicated with the farms and “emphasised the requirement to comply fully” with licence conditions.
Several other potential cases of overstocking were identified at farms run by other companies during this period. These cases can be seen in the table here.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6378293/
To view a searchable version of this table click here.
‘Mockery of the licensing system’
Following these cases, the Minister held a meeting with the CEO of Mowi in October 2019. The Minister was informed in a meeting briefing document “it is essential that operators functioning under Section 19A(4) of the legislation do not breach the terms and conditions of their previous licence”.
If they do so, the briefing notes states, “not only do they place their consent to operate in danger but they also place the ‘roadmap’ agreed with the EU Commission in danger”.
Notes from the meeting in October 2019 show that the Minister stressed that he was “concerned that non-compliance by the company with licence conditions across a range of their sites would make the task of defending of the industry by the Department even more difficult”.
Salmon Watch Ireland’s John Murphy said he would agree with the sentiment stated by the Minister as, when licences have not been revoked or amended downwards, “it makes a mockery of the licensing system”.
The Department told us that it is “satisfied” that the current use of the provisions of Section 19A(4) “is appropriate” and that “work is ongoing and will continue” to reduce reliance on this rule as it works through the aquaculture licence backlog.
Failure to provide monitoring reports
One way to monitor for potential environmental impacts is through annual benthic monitoring that measures impacts on the seafloor beneath salmon pens from discharges from feed and fish faeces.
An analysis of Marine Institute audits released to us show that conditions on some Mowi farms did not meet the required environmental standards on 20 occasions between 2001 and 2020.
The main issues identified related to bacteria and excessive waste feed and the Marine Institute, in many instances, recommended that attention be paid to stocking densities. The company did not respond to specific questions on these issues.
In total, there were 39 occasions during this period that the Marine Institute viewed conditions to be unacceptable across all farms. These cases can be seen in the table here.
Our analysis of Marine Institute audit results show that sites met the required environmental standards in 90% of reports. However, the data also shows that there has been just 67% reporting compliance since the introduction of the surveys in 2001.
Although the benthic survey protocol clearly states that all sites are subject to survey, only 439 of the required 673 surveys were provided since 2001, an issue repeatedly flagged by the Marine Institute in its audit reports to DAFM.
Yet, the Department told us that, to date, “no enforcement action has been taken” for non- compliance in relation to the submission of annual benthic monitoring surveys. It said that it is “actively engaged in securing necessary reports” from all salmon farm operators.
https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/6397814/
To view an interactive version of this chart, click here.
New system ahead
A 2017 review of the aquaculture licensing system recommended a root-and-branch reform, including six-month time limits to determine licence applications, as well as more stringent enforcement proceedings for non-compliance with licence conditions.
The changes have yet to be implemented, yet would appear to be urgently required, according to the warnings from experts within the Department of the Marine itself.
As outlined in one of his submissions in December 2016, DAFM’s John Quinlan made it clear that the potential overturning of S19A(4) through legal action by NGOs “on the basis that it is not policed adequately by the State” would lead to “serious consequences” for the industry.
Salmon Watch Ireland’s legal complaint is still live with the European Commission and John Murphy said that, while the group has yet to hear from the EU body, the State is on warning.
“If this licensing process is to be regularised, we would have no issue going to any form, whether it be legal, European or whatever, to object to all these licences. We have informed the Department that we are quite willing to do that.”
Both Tony Lowes and Mark Boyden are still closely watching proceedings with Mowi’s planned facility in Shot Head in Bantry Bay, with Boyden hopeful of a decision that he said will benefit the bay and locals alike.
“I’m not a serial objector, I am a community activist. I’ve worked all my life to see that rural communities thrive but I’m not convinced that this is a way forward or is sustainable or holistic in any way.”
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In part one of this investigation, we revealed that the State has granted licences allowing salmon farms to cull small numbers of protected seals.
In part two, we examined concerns with the key impacts on the marine environment from salmon farming.
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This investigation was carried out by Niall Sargent of Noteworthy. It was proposed and funded by you, our readers.
Noteworthy is the investigative journalism platform from The Journal. You can support our work by helping to fund one of our other investigation proposals or submitting an idea for a story. Click here to find out more >>
We also have a number of environmental investigation proposals which you can view here.
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What a right pair of knobs
Like a lot of media savvy entertainers he promotes populist views on high profile issues. Try him on septic tanks, energy conservation, child abuse, abortion and education, regulation of a wide variety of areas and balancing the budget. There aren’t populist views, just a large variety of different views you have to wade through to compromise. Easy to through jibes like “I’d become one of them”. He’d make a fool of himself on the stump.
Russel Brand sees the bigger picture and as he said on the show that we should not be arguing over these small issues. The main issue is the banking crisis in 2008 and the transfer of wealth that has been going on ever since, leaving a massive disparity between wealthy and poor/working poor.
I don’t claim to know everything about water charges, septic tanks, property tax, but I do know that we bailed out private investors who took a gamble and this year we will be paying back 8 billion in interest on these debts, that we carry most of the burden of the eu banking crises, we pay close to €15,000 per capita,EU average is €200, we are paying 42% of the EU banking crises. Our government won’t ask for a write down on debt, won’t even ask, so don’t come looking for money off me to pay these debts, when they can’t even do their jobs properly.
Julie, nobody likes it but unfortunately we’ve had the style of government we’ve voted for, FG and Labour lost the 2nd last election despite promising more than FF. Lucky them. The alternatives
Left wing crew who promise us even more are even worse. Promising we shouldn’t have to pay for anything and that everything should be paid for by people over €100k. this proves they cant do the sums either. There are enough of them to keep us in matches and they already pay 52.56% tax plus all the other higher charges they are obliged to pay! Brand is like all the others – proposing simple trite and unworkable solutions. He’d be savaged in an election and he knows it.
You quote all the numbers, yes correct. but like all the “burn the bond holders” brigade you don’t offer a solution to our savings and pension funds that were wrapped up in deposits and bonds and how exactly the economy would have worked without banks. Oh and one other thing, it is highly likely that the state will profit from the Anglo and NAMA rescues and has been paid massive amounts of Interest by BoI and AIB which continues. the real problem we have is the surge we had in Government spending in the early noughties and the shock when it was withdrawn.
Brand sees part of the picture, but then like a lot of right-on leftists completely ignores the effect mass immigration has on working class people competing for jobs at the bottom end of the market
No one has an automatic right to jobs.
Lots of people think they have and free water and free healthcare and welfare. Its not free of course. just someone else pays. freedom = personal responsibility is not commonly understood.
Nobody has automatic rights to jobs, but people should not be expected to engage in a race to the bottom competing with immigrants coming from a much lower socio-economic background in a market with two few jobs.
I guarantee if you were a plumber, cleanibg lady or builder whose wages have being cut by 30% because of cheap east European labour your attitude would soon change.
Is it ok the race to the bottom competing with non-immigrants?
And how about we actually enforce a living wage and make sure employers pay people properly and equally instead of blaming people looking for jobs?
“I guarantee if you were a plumber, cleanibg lady or builder whose wages have being cut by 30% because of cheap east European labour your attitude would soon change.”
Oh please, people love the free market when it benefits them. When times were good and many plumbers, electricians and builders could charge whatever they liked, and were earning more than people who had studied years at college, it was all fair game. Now that the tables have turned and their skills aren’t so much in demand, suddenly we need to stop people entering the game. No profession is immune to it, it’s not just manual jobs. My discipline is software engineering and we had to learn the hard way in 2001 when the bubble for building s**t websites for massive prices collapsed that sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, and sometimes you either need to accept a lower rate or upskill and move on. Would it have been fair for us to come in and ask the government to manipulate the market for us?
Either competition is something you want or it’s something you don’t. Inventing rules for who gets to play the game and asking the Big State to enforce them has a long tradition though – it’s what kept women out of the workforce.
@search
we are not all as lucky as you with your handy government and pensionable job,and all you have to do is troll the journal news stories all day,its a great life you have,what i`d give to swap places with you.
If it’s a level playing field competition is fair. It worked well while the EU comprised of nations of a similar economic status. But expecting people to compete with Eastern Europeans who can live 8 to a house and accept a fraction of the wages and still save enough to buy a house within 4 years in their home nation is unrealistic.
Then enforce equal rules in relation to employment. I live in a house with 8 other people, how is the number of people in a house relevant to whether or not someone should be able to work?
You really are a vacuos idiot sometimes. Your experience of living in rented student accomodation bares no correlation to this debate.
1. I’m not a student
2. It isn’t student accomodation
1. I’m not a student
2. It isn’t student accommodation
I asked a genuine question which you’ve deliberately avoided by making random assumptions about me, yet again
Ah here. All Brand did was deflect from the legitimate question on immigration and the issue got lost in a shouting match. Not a good debate when you don’t properly engage with the question. Corruption should be tackled but just because it exists doesn’t mean you should dismiss any questions on immigration reform.
The gobby purple headed possibly psychotic woman in the audience did Brand no favours. She reminded me of some commenters on here whose go-to response when immigration is a topic is to scream ‘wayycist’!
As Tommy Tiernan once said.. “You can’t invade half the world and then get upset when those people follow you home!”
And this clown Brand has to get involved in our water charges too…..
Russell – “I won’t run for Parliament because I’m afraid I’ll turn into one of them”.
Hardly the sort of conviction you might hope for from Brand.
Its easy to be the hurler on the ditch instead of doing battle on the pitch.
Class. Another one to spout out over a few pints.
Currently Russell’s daily Trew’s videos are getting about 200k views each. If he went into Parliament his voice would be swallowed up similar to what happened to Ming in Ireland. I think he should continue doing what he’s doing until he has build a strong team around him with similar views. Maybe then, they could collectively run.
Brand was invited on the show for his views and he did just that, stopping Farage in his tracks from giving an election speech in a potential Ukip region.
Actually Brand exposed his pseudo intellect for all to see. Easy to scream from the sidelines about burning bankers but went rather subdued after being asked to run for parliament.
Stuck in the middle here.
I agree with Farage on immigration and the EU, but not much else. Theres no denying Britain is vastly overcrowded for such a small country and the strain further immigration will place on resources may be too much.
On the other hand, Brand is right tthat much of the inequality in society is caused by extraordinarily wealthy bankers and crooks like Osbourne who have no interest in helping those less well off.
I thought exactly the same, they would make a good ying-yang in government
What’s wrong with inequality? If someone is capable, like Bill Gates, of coming up with a product that 1/2 the world wants, doesn’t he deserve to be unequal? He could then use his billions to help eradicate Polio in India. Musk who started PayPal has gone on to develop electric cars and space ships. If everyone earned the same wages where would investment, innovation, new technology etc come from?
William,
Have you not seen what’s happening in India at the moment with Bill Gates’s vaccination program? I think you should go look it up
thejynxeffect, what is that supposed to mean? Have you been a naughty boy and been reading the tin-hat wearers web sites?
” Theres no denying Britain is vastly overcrowded for such a small country”
Isn’t there? Define “overcrowded”, Britain has a population density of 262 pop/km^2, not even in the top 50. The majority of studies on immigration show a small but positive net beneficial effect on the economy. Do not forget that immigrants tend to be young and working, so they are paying taxes. I accept that immigration puts pressure on schools and hospitals, but I didn’t realise there was something preventing the construction of new hospitals and schools.
I often ask as a thought experiment, if the immigrants were all ‘natural born’ what would your proposed solution be? If it would be to analyse each of them, see if they fit some criteria, and if not kick them out, then at least you would be being consistent and I’d applaud you for the intellectual honesty, if not the solution itself. If your solution would be to construct the necessary infrastructure to cope with the increased population, I’d ask why not propose the same if it’s immigrants instead of natural born? I think then, you’ll get to the heart of the issue.
William – 5 of the 10 richest people in the world belong to the Walton family. They own Walmart which the largest US employer. 70% of their staff earn less than $11,000 per year and they are not allowed join unions. Walmart make $7billion and yet their employees are living on the breadline. There is obviously always going to be some level of inequality but if the current trend continues the division will become more extreme and those at the bottom will have no power.
If Walmart paid their staff about an extra 15% then the company would make no profit. There wouldn’t be any point in having the business. There would be no money to open more stores or employ more people. The shareholders, which no doubt includes the pension funds of ordinary workers wouldn’t get any dividends. What’s your point?
The UK is on the verge of collapse because of un controlled emigration. The EU is the cause of this with the removal of border controls. I think the UK will pull the plug on the EU very soon and we need to do the same or the country we know will end up like the UK.
How exactly, in detail, is the UK on the verge of collapse because of immigration?
I thought I made my point quite clear. Come back to me when you base your argument on fact and aren’t pulling figures out of your arse like you did in your first line.
Lezlie, I am typing this inn London, everything is just fine. No sign of any collapse. The economy is booming and I suspect 90% of all immigrants are working hard today. Your gross exaggeration can best be described as garbage.
Mass immigration has turned many cities in the UK into Balkanised sh*th*les.
Rocky, Walmart employ over 2,100,000 people and the Walton’s make a profit of 3,000,000,000. from their 50% share of the company. Divide one by the other and as a percent of 11,000 you get about 15%.
Scipio, not really true, I lived in Birmingham for a good few years. The gang and drug culture that has plagued the city in the last few years isn’t a result of immigration. The divides in London run along the same lines as the class divides that were more prevalent last century, and East London exists because of migration.
Also Bradford really isn’t as bad as people think, in fact it was the Muslim community and Muslim leaders that saved the last synagogue there.
“The UK is on the verge of collapse because of un controlled emigration.”
It definitely isn’t!
Point proven William – straight out of your arse.
The divides in London also run along etno religious lines. As some friends of mine experienced first hand when they had to vacate the area they were living. The daily barrage of abuse for dressing like a white slut became too much.
I wonder if the Rotheram abuse victims share your sentiments.
Last time I checked people got abuse for dressing like “white sluts” from white people too. I’m not denying that it runs along ethno-religious lines as well, just that it’s along the same lines as class divisions, and East London has always been a migrant area. Is there actually any evidence that the Rotherham case happened because of immigration? I’ll also remind you that these things happen across the world at the hands of people of every ethnicity, including plenty of white English people. It doesn’t happen BECAUSE of immigration
Immigration is one of the major causes of the debt, you can’t bring 10 million immigrants into a country in such a short period of time, house, feed, clothe, educate, provide healthcare for them and not expect there to be dire consequences. But to downplay the effects of the sheer volume of people who have come to the UK in the last 20 years is to deny reality. No where in the world has there ever been such a mass influx of people as there has been to uk in recent years.
Where are you getting that 10million figure Lezlie? And how exactly is immigration a major cause of debt? No other example? How about the Americas? For example, European immigrants accounted for 40% of the USA’s population growth I’m the late 19th century. What about the Jewish migration to Israel? Even now the UK has lower immigration than many other places
Mr Smelly Little Animal, which figures do you dispute, assuming your infantile “pulling figures from your arse” means where did you get your figures from? Walmart also paid $7 billion dollars in tax last year which pays for a lot of food stamps, project housing, health benefits etc. Apparently hundreds apply for each job advertised. The average wage in Walmart is $20,000 btw.
East London has never even during the years of the great famine seen the scale of immigration in the last quarter of a century.
They left that area because it was inhabited by people who come a deeply mysogynistic culture, who feel threatened by independant western women. And no I’ most definitely have never heard a white person call another white person a white slut .
If you wish to believe the abuse of white of kaffir girls by Asian Muslim men has nothing to do with race or religion that’s your choice. But don’t expect tge rest of us to swallow your idiotic naivety
UK population has risen from 54 million to almost 64 million since 1995.
I’m not making an argument over levels of migration in East London, I’m making the point that it has always been a migrant populated area and exists because of migrants. Where’s the evidence, Scipio? Our culture is deeply misogynistic.
Well, in 1995 the UK population was almost 58 million, not 54 million, and how did you conjure up the figure of 10 million immigrants in under 20 years just from the population change? Are you suggesting that no one was born in this period?
‘Our culture is deeply misogynistic.’ For a right-on leftist like yourself maybe.
You’re really denying that western culture is miogynistic? And Irish culture? British culture definitely is. Brilliant way to avoid addressing any of my main points. What the hell is a “right-on leftist”?
When it comes to emigration England stands out as one of the worlds most welcome beacons. The Westminster parliament is well represented by former immigrant’s including party leaders Farage and Milliband.
‘Kaffir girls’ – is that East London in South Africa you are talking about, certainly not the UK.
USA number of immigrants,45,785,090,immigrants per percentage of national population,14.3%
UK number of immigrants 7,826.131,immigrants per percentage of national population,12.4%
GERMANY,number of immigrants,9,845,244,immigrants per percentage of national population,11.9%
IRELAND, number of immigrants 735,535,immigrants per percentage of national population, 15.9%
This a small example how immigration is getting out of control in our country,with the blue shirts and labour traitors at the helm,it does`nt include asylum seekers or illegals Yet the blueshirts and labour traitors seem to be happy enough with our doctors and our youth emigrating,as they advertise for doctors and cheap labour from outside the EU..its a false economy and the true price of what the Irish people have to pay for this total incompetent governments polices will be realised in a few years,but by then it will be way too late.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_countries_by_foreign-bo…
While I agree with you in principle, pure numbers, yes it is worrying, there should be controlled immigration just like Australia or Canada, that doesn’t mean to close the door but to open it to the right people with the right mentality and right intentions. But while the figures are high and should be reduced, I’d take our 15.9% vs Germany’s or Holland’s 12%.
I lived in The Netherlands and these figures have been very steady in the past 50 years instead of the last decade in Ireland, our 15% are mainly Polish and British which are Europeans who share our values. Germany’s and Netherlands 12% are mainly Moroccan and Turkish, we don’t have Ghettos in Ireland (yet) Shari ah like some parts of the UK and social conflicts, our 15%, we dodged the bullet there, trust me.
give it time my friend,with the current trend it won`t be long now.
Therefore all the Irish around the world should be repatriated and the people on the famine ships should have been sent back (probably to their death) as well.
Seamus – what are you on about? Repatriating people? On what basis? Famine ships? Less of the drama please. It’s almost 2015. Deal with the now.
By your logic all the Irish who have gone abroad to work and build lives in Australia and the USA etc should be forced home. No more going abroad to work. Idiot.
My point is that we are, and have been beneficiaries of economic and humanitarian migration i as has Britain, So UKIP and their supporters here need to face reality and not be so hypoctitical
Which means what exactly? We should ditch our border controls on the basis of something that happened 150 years ago?
There is nothing wrong or racist with wanting an immigration system similar to Canada and Australia.
Seamus – thanks for that. Some might argue as to exactly how beneficial that migration has been on the scale that has been happening over the last decade or so.
Leinsterlion, you copied and pasted this on another article as well. So let me copy and paste my response and see if you can give me an answer:
“This a small example how immigration is getting out of control in our country”
What percentage of foreign-born is acceptable to you?
You are right to suggest that our talented and educated people are leaving, but that is more down to (a) the fact these people generally have more enterprise and ambition, anyway (b) the crippling tax regime on higher earners, where the government helps itself to a massive slice of their income, and provides them crappy, uncompetitive services in return. All while an electorate moans about the fact that they’re not paying enough tax. Of *course* they’re going to have an incentive to leave.
Your solution is to put up the barricades, and use the apparatus of the all-powerful State to restrict people’s freedoms. My opinion is that if you really want to make it more attractive for the Irish doctors to stay, then you have to be more competitive with other countries. Likewise, if some Polish worker wants to come in and do a job for half the rate of the Irish guy, she or he is perfectly entitled to, as long as the employer is complying with all legislation.
@Juan
“While I agree with you in principle, pure numbers, yes it is worrying, there should be controlled immigration just like Australia or Canada, that doesn’t mean to close the door but to open it to the right people with the right mentality and right intentions. ”
We already have strict immigration policies for anyone outside of Europe. What are the criteria for “the right mentality and right intentions”? Are you only going to apply those criteria to Irish people?
“There is nothing wrong or racist with wanting an immigration system similar to Canada and Australia.”
Again, outside of Europeans we have one of the strictest immigration regimes. Ultimately in an increasingly globalised world, closed borders are the retreat of people who want their Big State to manipulate the market to personally benefit them. They’re no better than corporations lobbying for the State to do the same through tax breaks and loopholes.
@Search Eagle, our current immigration system is not that strict, there are ways around if you can prove that no Irish or EU national living in Ireland can do that job. All you have to do is make a position with a requirement “being native Hindu speaker and having knowledge of the local market” for example. And I was referring mostly to our asylum system which is a complete joke. We shouldn’t be having on paper 0 asylum seekers from Africa or Asia since we don’t have direct flights with any airport in these two continents with the exception of the UAE. EU convention says that an asylum applicant must be and can only be received in the first EU country they land.
A lot of economical migrants miss using the failed asylum system, then comes the family reunification, then their families, marriage, then the bride’s family, and it goes on and on
“our current immigration system is not that strict, there are ways around if you can prove that no Irish or EU national living in Ireland can do that job”
Believe me, if you had experience of trying to move here as a non-EU citizen you would not be saying the same thing. But regardless, if it was up to me, we’d slowly be removing the barriers to people coming here, as they belong in the 19th century, with the rules that stopped blacks, women and other groups accessing paid work. What right do “Irish or EU nationals” have to that job over someone from Kenya or Australia? As far as I’m concerned, if I’m an employer, the job belongs to me, and I’ll give it to the person I deem most qualified for the job.
Ireland has one of the lowest acceptance rates of asylum seekers in the EU.
From reading his previous comments I gather Juan is a Venezuelan national. Having immigrated here ,I’d be willing to bet he’s more knowledgeable in this subject than you are.
I do Scipio, although I was treated as an EU national when I first arrived in Ireland and previously in The Netherlands I know by having meet a lot of people in nearly half my life I have lived outside my home country.
Did you know that Ireland is one of the very few places where a non EU nationals can work as students and get a student visa AFTER they land in Ireland, all they have to do is show the Garda at the airport the English School’s letter of acceptance, a return ticket and a few thousand Euro, thats it! Then they go and get their student visa, is more of a formality rather than an application, they get issued a 1 year visa, with this visa they can work up to 20 hours per week and Full Time during public school holidays (June July, August, Easter, mid term, Christmas, etc). They can stay as a student for up to 5 years and 7 years if you do a Master’s or PHD.
There is a scandal and some English Schools were closed, I personally know one man from Venezuela (irish citizen too) who has an English academy and he personally offered me to forge documents if I can find students who wants to come here, he can make sure his college marks his attendance without them never stepping a foot in class, this and also other proposals to defraud the Venezuelan government with a preferential rate they have with the purchasing of foreign currency for students.
This man is loaded now. Of course I said now as I don’t need this hassle in my life, but I am now speaking as an Irish citizen and not as Venezuelan. 2500 Venezuelan students comes every year, 90% of them come with the idea of moving permanently and work, and I know by a fact that these are good people, they want to integrate, most respect the rules and just want a brake from the hell hole Venezuela has become when it used to be a paradise on earth. But they many who actually go to class and work not braking the law, it is our unique visa policy that makes it easy for non EU students to come as a students, work, stay for years and eventually find an employer who can help them with a full working visa. The same applies to people from everywhere.
I could in theory bring anyone I want from Venezuela, China, Russia, South Africa, Pakistan, whatever, all I have to do is create a job in sales that requires a native Spanish speaker or native Chinese, etc, and my business is distribution abroad, we export so I could easily say to the Gards that I want Mr. Chang or Ms Rodriguez because I can’t find a person who can speak native Spanish or Chinese and also having the knowledge of these countries domestic market.
I could keep going, before I became Irish I knew a very nice man in Portlaoise who got retired, he was the towns immigration office, things down in the country are less bureaucratic and he told me stories that would blow your mind, strangely, he had respect for Nigerians.
I admire Nigel Farage’s patience at having to deal with a gob$hite like Brand.
Maybe when Brand grows up his opinions will be taken seriously
Farage is the Arthur Daly of British politics.
I was hoping to watch qt later tonight and find out what brand actually stands for. At present it seems to be some version of open borders?
If Farage is the Arthur Daly, Brand must be the Wolfie (Citizen) Smith! : -)
Brand is makes sense on a lot of issues such as privatisation of the NHS and banking culture strangling the country, but his views on immigration are just naive.
Avian, I was thinking of Wolfie the other day. That’s mad. I loved that show as a child. No idea why.
I was actually thinking that now would be a great time for someone to revamp it. We’re going through the exact same times as then.
Comparing Farage to Powell was unjust. We’ve come to realise the wisdom and truth of what Powell said. As for Farage, he too is right about open doors and it is pathetic to see people flagrantly disregard his view when it serves their political views to do so. UKIP have published their manifesto and it certainly doesn’t mention only immigration.
Frankly, at the end of the day, electorates everywhere have become completely disenchanted with the system and in answer to their plight & powerlessness at the hands of these self-serving inadequates they have put into place to ‘represent’ them and not be elected little dictators, are rising up as they have always done throughout history – and eventually that means only one thing – Powell’s wisdom.
Brehon, you are a complete tool.
Powell actually began the immigration he so bitterly criticised in later years.
He actively campaigned for mass inward immigration in the Caribbean to bolster the dwindling staff levels in the NHS.
Russell Brand: a gobby git!!
This Brand guy is determind to boost his own profile at any cost,he seems to be turning up every where sticking his nose in where it don`t belong,bit of a clown i think.
I’ve not had the chance to see this recent qt, but on Farage and his parties immigration policy / EU policy…… What’s the problem? He talks a lot of sense as far as I’ve heard.
Nobody?
Well, they seem to think leaving the EU is the answer to all our woes, and where exactly does their view of immigration stop? Some members of UKIP have suggested deporting immigrants and children of immigrants, Farage’s own children would be classified as immigrants if we went with UKIP’s views. It’s a fairly ramshackle party, they’re not disciplined and the party policy, or the leader’s views aren’t a guarantee that that’s actually the views of the party itself.
Farage and Hitler share a common ideology
What’s that?
Farage and Hitler both fascist
Right-on, man.
They both enjoy drinking beer
Bias at all this report….
Do you feel this summary of quotes and reaction doesnt fit what you wanted to see?
Any chance you might be biased?
The quotes were selected
Stroke a furry wall
What the hell was BBC Question Time doing inviting Russell Brand on to comment about anything? Unless the subject is poor taste in pranks the man has no qualifications whatsoever.
Farage is a horrid creature and should have been met with someone capable of demolishing his xenophobia.
Farage/ukip gets the racist /xenophobia tag less so these days as those who trot it out are rarely able to back it up. I’m not having a go, but would like to understand what justifies this claim. I find that a lot of those who attach themselves to “lefty” or anti-establishment ideals, like to have a villain that they can rally against for perceived acts of injustice.
I think you would find it difficult to justify painting me as lefty or anti-establishment, especially as you have no idea of my political views. That’s just lazy stereotyping on your part. A bit like the lazy stereotyping employed by Mr. Farage and UKIP. Have a look at this…http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100261889/ukip-are-now-a-racist-party/
Bernie – I’m not painting you as a lefty or anything like that. I was making a broader point of the need for a villain from those who tend to paint Farage as a racist without being able to back up such claims.
As you say, I don’t know your politics. But what I have heard Farage say makes a lot of sense; at least regarding EU enlargement, trade and immigration limits.
He has no issue with anyone coming to the UK as long as they have a skill that’s needed and housing sorted. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. From an Irish immigration perspective, it’s not like we had a shortage of taxi drivers that we needed to fill, software engineers, definately, barristas? Not so much.
A good warm up for Farage before he meets Steph and Dom from Gogglebox for a true grilling this week.
I think BBC’s question time is seriously losing credibility letting the likes of Brand on their show. Yet again we another potential debate on immigration turns into childish name calling. The same sadly happens in this country as well
Lol. Once you have made it, then be populist for the masses. Paul Murphy = Russel Brand!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXADr6-K8D4&list=PLJgDzB_Zc6TI4S0GUSj7BVWYdbkehR1TT&index=2
there is a lot more on brand.
farage is right on uncontrolled immigration, he does however keep spouting the same nonsense of the uk having a judeo christian background talk about bs, they are recent additions …………….and have been responsible for killing millions.
if britain leaves we should consider following them out of the eussr also.
And lose all the funding for roads, trains, airports, education, research, healthcare etc etc?
He was fairly well behaved – mind you it wouldn’t have been the right place for his infamous ‘confused bath’ routine
Europe Adrift
28 members of the EU – the applications to join by the Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, the remaining Balkan countries and Turkey are blocked
Renewed fighting in Bosnia-Herzegovina, stoked up by Serbia which is resentful at not joining the EU (as promised earlier)
Iceland aborts EU accession negotiations
Continuing instability in the MENA region, with no political solution in Syria; the US, Britain, France and Arab countries engage there militarily, using the “successful” Libyan model of limited intervention and “right-to-protect” argument, but unsuccessful in bringing about political stability
Turkey moves further into northern Syria to provide a bridgehead for rebels fighting continued government repression; armed leftists, Islamic fundamentalists and Kurdish separatists fight each other and the Ankara regime
NATO disbanded, and nothing (western) put in its place
US still embroiled in Afghanistan
Economic and social chaos in Russia, which has a knock-on effect in the Ukraine and the three Baltic States: Kaliningrad sold to the EU
Very right-wing Conservative government elected in the UK on the basis of an anti-Europe ticket: publishes a timetable for phased withdrawal from the EU
1.5% average annual growth in Europe during 2010-20: unemployment high, and social unrest mushrooms
Financial instability: Euro on the verge of collapse, (as credit institutions fail in the poorer parts of Europe)
USA continues to interfere in European affairs: does not favour creation of a largely protectionist, federal European super-state
Due to the large number of migrants into North America from Latin America, Madrid adopts the special European/USA relationship: a resentful London blocks further talks on Gibraltar
European social model starts to implode: immigrants hired/fired without social protection: prison population doubles: refugees and asylum seekers become the target of routine street violence: right wing political parties thrive (even further)
Popular hostility against European support for US policy: violent demonstrations everywhere in Europe: media war between US and non-US owned global companies: minority, racist parties do well in elections (again)
Emergency powers given to police in Britain, France and Germany to detain suspected illegal immigrants
Urban terrorists, separatists and mafia join forces to combat state authoritarianism: drug trafficking and addiction rise
Churches try to heal social wounds, but fail: anti-authoritarian theology rises in European universities, leading to violence on campus
EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is revoked unilaterally by the European Council
Relations between the European Commission and the European Parliament become increasingly adversarial: significant fraud identified by four Commissioners from Britain, Hungary, Italy and Lithuania
Belgium no longer exists: the Flemish and Walloon speaking regions evolve into two independent countries: Brussels becomes a sovereign territory of the EU
Wider Europe up to 2050 looks dire: dog eats dog
have your say