In 2013, the Irish High Court awarded €400,000 in
compensation to two fishery companies because the Minister delayed
unjustifiably in assessing and permitting mussel seed fishing in
Castlemaine Harbour, a site protected by Irish and European
environmental law. The State did not operate the
environmental regime in an orderly way to allow harmony between
environmental protection and the fisheries' businesses.
The Court held that there was a mistake of law in how the
Minister thought it was appropriate to manage the aquaculture
business in a balanced way with protecting the environment. There
was "operational negligence" by the Minister in failing
to carry out the regular scientific tests or monitoring that would
have provided the baseline data to equip the Minister either to
have a proper screening test or to have a fully informed
appropriate assessment.
