Vol. 487 No. 3
100 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the Government policy, if any, in relation to the sale of fisheries attached to State owned lands, or lands in the ownership of State companies; the fisheries, if any, which have been sold to private interests by the State or State companies in the past 12 months; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4048/98]
The central and regional fisheries boards have responsibility for and administer fisheries previously held by the Land Commission. Stated policy and practice is to lease, as opposed to selling, these fisheries with preference given as far as possible to local angling interests.
The Central Fisheries Board also has direct responsibility for the management of the State owned Galway, Erriff and Moy fisheries. Reflecting my stated policy commitment to the catchment management approach, I generally favour devolving the management of fisheries to regional and local level and to ensuring the full participation of local angling and enterprise groups in development of the resource.
Apart from the ESB, which has statutory ownership of fishing rights on the Shannon catchment, I am not aware of fishing rights held by State companies which would give rise to the concerns underlying the Deputy's question. If the Deputy has details of a specific situation, I would be glad to have it investigated.
