Table of Contents
In 1987, Irish Taoiseach Charlie Haughey established a dedicated Department of the Marine with a full cabinet ministry in which all the functions to do with fishing, offshore energy, vessel registration and licensing and aquaculture were brought together which represented a new prominence for the marine sector. He had a belief in the development of a necklace of marinas around the coast to cater for the growing interest in sailing tourism.
His successors dismembered the department over a number of years. It became the Department of Marine & Natural Resources in 1997, the Department of Communications, Marine & Natural Resources in 2002. In 2007, the reduced Marine element disappeared into the Department of Agriculture and Food. Responsibility for enforcement of international maritime legal standards lies with the offices of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. The Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, or MARA was established on 17th July 2023. It now regulates existing foreshore licenses and activities like seaweed harvesting.
