The High Court yesterday reserved judgment on a challenge by a group of Co Louth fishermen to the granting of a licence for mussel farming in an area of Carlingford Lough.
The fishermen, including four members of the Carlingford Lough Shellfish Co-operative Society Ltd, are seeking an order quashing the granting by the Minister for the Marine of an aquaculture licence on August 3rd 1995 to Mr Alex McCarthy, trading as Alex McCarthy Shellfish (AMS), Dock Road, Castle mungret, Co Limerick.
They claim the area in question was a public fishery and the Department had told them only a co-op could secure an aquaculture licence for it.