asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will consider an earlier opening date for net salmon fishermen on the River Slaney in view of the very slack seasons experienced by net fishermen over the last few years.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Net Salmon Fishing.
Before any change could be made in the regulations governing the close season for net fishing for salmon and trout in the River Slaney I should require to be satisfied following upon consideration of evidence given at a public sworn inquiry that the change would be in the interests of the fisheries of the river system as a whole. No evidence warranting such a conclusion was forthcoming at an inquiry held into the matter in January, 1938, and no case has since been made out by the fishermen which would justify the holding of a further inquiry.
Has the Parliamentary Secretary not had any information from the net fishermen on the Slaney who had a very slack season in the past few years?
No. Any such statement would not be borne out by the statistics. What has happened in regard to the Slaney is that there has been a share-out of the available salmon over twice the number of net men. The number of licences has almost doubled in recent years.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary admit that the rod fishermen are catching more fish than the net fishermen? Whilst the catches of the rod fishermen are substantial, the catches of the net fishermen have gone down.
The catches of the net fishermen have not gone down as statistics show. The number of licences has practically doubled in the last six or seven years. Therefore, the normal available salmon harvest has to be shared out amongst twice the number of licensees. That is the basis of the complaint.
Have the returns to the net fishermen declined?
Yes, because their numbers have doubled and if they continue to increase still further the salmon harvest will have to be shared out over a larger number of participants and each will have to get less.
In 1932 Fianna Fáil promised the fishermen that if they got into power they would let the fishermen out earlier. We have met the fishermen and the oldest of them have proved to us that the salmon are running earlier now than heretofore. The whole thing is that the board of conservators are against letting the fishermen out earlier and are allowing Englishmen to come over and take the fish. They will not allow the fishermen out earlier. That is the whole thing, but if we get a new Minister we will change that.