Vol. 464 No. 4
7 Mr. Clohessy asked the Minister for the Marine if he has received a report of the damage caused to the Mannin Bay Salmon Farm in Clifden, County Galway; and the financial loss it has caused to the Irish Salmon Growers Association. [8209/96]
37 Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for the Marine if he will make a statement on the recent attack on a salmon farm in the west. [8222/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 7 and 37 together.
The attack perpetrated on sea farm cages and moorings at Mannin Bay Salmon Company Ltd. in County Galway resulting in the loss of salmon smolts to sea was a reprehensible and criminal act. I condemn utterly this appalling and wanton act of destruction which is currently the subject of a Garda investigation.
The site in question is located at Knock Point in Mannin Bay. The area was designated fully for aquaculture purposes by ministerial order under the Aquaculture (Clifden Bay, Mannin Bay) Order, 1986, following a public inquiry.
The company submitted a licence application to the Department of the Marine in 1993 which involved two elements — an increase in production limits and the opening up of a new site at Knock Point to facilitate fallowing.
These proposals were the subject of extensive public consultations including the publication of an environmental impact study. On foot of the public notice procedures, a range of representations and objections were submitted by interested persons and bodies.
Following full consideration of submissions, representations and objections received and the Department's assessment of the technical and other implications of the proposal, I informed Mannin Bay Salmon Company Ltd., that I was not prepared to accede to the request to increase production for the 1996 growing season at the company's existing licensed sites.
I did, however, approve the granting of licences in respect of the fallowing site at Knock Point. The permissions given for the Knock Point site relate to fallowing only, are of trial duration — 1996 initially — and involve no increase in licensed production limits.
The development of fallowing sites at sea farms is an internationally accepted fish husbandry-management strategy with demonstrable benefits for fish health and environmental standards.
In addition to the ongoing Garda investigation, the Department's engineering services have also completed an investigation which in substance confirms the extent of the damage caused to nets and mooring ropes and the loss of salmon smolts. The investigation also highlighted the danger to marine safety and navigation posed by three of the sea farm cages drifting away from the site following the severing of the mooring ropes.
I also arranged for a representative from my office and officers of An Bord Iascaigh Mhara to meet company management to assess the future implications for the company, both financial and otherwise and to offer every assistance to them to re-establish their operational capacity at Mannin Bay and minimise job losses.
The Department and its agencies and technical services will continue to assist Mannin Bay Salmon Company Ltd. in every way possible.
I thank the Minister for his lengthy reply on this unfortunate matter and I join him in condemning it as an act of vandalism of the highest order. I gather that 250,000 smolts escaped resulting in a loss of over £1 million. Can the Minister give some measure of compensation to the people who have suffered such a huge loss?
I can confirm that 250,000 smolts were released as a result of the damage caused to the cages. I understand that the company is in discussion with its insurers and this is the appropriate way in which the matter should be advanced.
Will the Minister make an effort at any level to ensure that vandalism of this kind will not happen in future?
None of us wants to see that type of vandalism. It puts people out of work, destroys property and is in violation of all principles of marine activity under which such activity is not interfered with in this way at sea. I do not want to see this recurring and I have no reason to believe that it will. In the meantime we are doing everything possible, through the Department and BIM, to assist the company concerned to re-establish its operation and to protect its investments and employment at that farm.
The time for priority questions is exhausted and we may take the remaining two questions in ordinary time.
