When this discussion was adjourned last week I expressed my surprise that there should be opposition to this motion for increasing the licence duties chargeable for fish netting generally. The main opposition seemed to centre on the licence duties chargeable on driftnetting, and it was indicated that an increase of £47 from £3 to £50, was too sizeable and should not be approved by the House. I had mentioned that the £3 licence duty for drift-netting was established in the year 1848 when that amount of money was a far different figure from what it is today, and I am virtually certain that £3 in 1848 was much greater than £50 is in 1976. Therefore I did not see any justifiable grounds for the opposition to this increase.
The provisional figure for our salmon catches this year, 1976, is of the order of £5.3 million. That is what the catch is deemed to be worth, and what we are doing here in this measure is asking for a general group of increases on the several netting licences. The Exchequer contribution for this current year is £390,000 to boards of conservators. The contribution from licence duties is £42,000, and on the assumption that a similar number of licences will be taken out in 1977—and I have no doubt that that will happen—the new figure will be £152,000. Therefore we are asking the holders of the several licences to contribute an additional £110,000, and I expressed the view here on the last occasion that I was quite satisfied that there were no objections to making this contribution.
In the course of my discussions with licence holders, and particularly drift net licence holders, they made it quite clear to me that they were anxious to make a greater contribution towards our salmon—as one could describe it—conservancy fund. They appreciated that the nominal figure of £3 in this present year was a ridiculous contribution. On such recommendations, and in view of the fact that I had already indicated to the House some months ago that we had in mind to make these increases, the question at issue then was what was the better channel through which to collect the additional revenue. Naturally, increased licence duties was one way. The Opposition here in the Dáil and also the Opposition in the Seanad indicated another way.