I call Deputy O'Donoghue who has five minutes.
Adjournment Debate
I am not due to take this Adjournment matter. I gather the Minister of State, Deputy Mansergh, is taking it.
Would Deputy O'Donoghue mind waiting?
If the Deputy does not mind I will call Deputy Costello.
I understood I was first.
Accident and Emergency Services
I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this important issue of the need for the Minister for Health and Children to outline her plans for resolving the bed and space crisis in the accident and emergency unit of the Mater hospital.
The position has been fairly dire for many years. The circumstances in very many accident and emergency units are unacceptable in normal health terms. They are located in prefabricated buildings. The space area is inadequate and they are very often in corridors. Trolleys are used as beds and people are in chairs. The existing set-up in the Mater hospital leaves much to be desired but a worse state of affairs will be reached with the announcement that 60 beds are due to close, with the possibility of an additional 20 beds closing. A bottleneck has been continuing for many years and in terms of the number of people on trolleys or chairs, the trolley count is always in the high twenties. It used to be quite low in mid-summer. In the past it might have been in the high twenties in the middle of the winter, but in the summer months the trolley count is as bad as it was some years ago in the winter.
The position is not improving. It is deteriorating by the day. There are continual delayed discharges. People are coming in at one end but they are not leaving at the other, and the reason for that almost beggars belief because the thrust of the Minister's policy was to ensure there would be step-down facilities in the community. The Minister, who is six years in her position, promised that from the outset in her ten point plan. The problem is that the number of delayed discharges continues to rise. Bed blockages are increasing in number and the promised step-down facilities have not been delivered. Neither is there any relationship with the local authorities to ensure that necessary adjustments to homes are made in time to allow people move back into the community and into their own homes. The position is dire.
I had a call today from the daughter of an 88 year old woman who told me her mother had been attending the fracture unit in the Mater hospital for 13 days. She eventually got a bed tonight but the staff in the fracture unit made it clear that they needed the bed for hospital treatment. That type of treatment, or lack of treatment, for somebody as elderly as that woman, and the pain and suffering they are put through, is wrong, and eventually they end up in the accident and emergency department waiting to be received.
I will give the Minister some examples. Yesterday, the acute unit in the Mater hospital could only contain nine patients at any given time. There are only nine beds. The staff got a call that somebody had been sent up from Sligo and now they were being sent back to Sligo because a bed was not available for them. That type of operation is expensive. It is poor treatment and bad medical practice. It is a case of constant overcrowding and confusion.
Everybody recognises that when people get in, the quality of the services from the doctors and the nurses is superb. The problem is the mismanagement, the failure to do anything about it and the fact that it has been going on so long, yet there is still no light at the end of the tunnel.
I am replying to this Adjournment matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Mary Harney. I thank Deputy Costello for raising this matter.
The HSE and the Government are determined that patients will continue to have emergency services that are accessible and responsive to their medical needs, and integrated with other hospital and primary care services.
Accordingly, the Minister has been monitoring the position in emergency departments very closely. While there have been clear improvements in most hospitals in the past few years, a small number of emergency departments continue to regularly record relatively high numbers of patients waiting over six hours and thus fall short of the current target set by the Health Service Executive of having patients registered in emergency departments either admitted or discharged in under six hours.
The Minister met with the chairperson, chief executive officer and members of the HSE management team earlier this year to review progress and to ensure that all possible steps are being taken to minimise the waiting time for patients awaiting admission. She asked them to focus on seven hospitals. Each of those hospitals, one of which is the Mater hospital, have developed hospital specific action plans to drive performance improvements. Those plans have been agreed by senior hospital management and clinical directors. The plans have also been assessed and approved in conjunction with the quality and clinical care directorate.
A key component of the Mater's action plan is the operation of the pilot Mater Smithfield rapid injury clinic, which acts as a satellite service to the Mater hospital's emergency department and has the capacity to reduce significantly patient waiting times as it has the potential to cater for 30% of the cases which have been presenting to the hospital's main emergency department.
Since it opened last April, this dedicated injury clinic has treated over 1,700 patients, with access on the basis of public eligibility. The clinic, which is allowing the Mater's emergency department to concentrate more on managing serious illness and major trauma, is staffed by a team of specialist emergency nurse practitioners and doctors and led by the Mater consultants in emergency medicine. The clinic opens on Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
On 17 June last, the Mater hospital reported 70 delayed discharge patients, which is a reduction from a high of 121 in June 2009. Many of those delayed discharges can be addressed by way of the fair deal scheme.
The Minister, Deputy Harney, has also asked the HSE to streamline the administrative processes for dealing with applications under the fair deal scheme to ensure that patient discharges to a suitable long-stay facility are not delayed unnecessarily.
The most recent weekly report for emergency department activity at the Mater hospital indicates some improvement in performance. For the week ending 20 June, at 2 p.m. each day no patient was waiting in excess of 24 hours for admission following the decision to admit them compared to five for the same period in 2009. The numbers waiting between 12 and 24 hours was 18, compared to 30 for the same period last year. The hospital continues to focus on process improvement to facilitate the discharge of patients at the earliest point possible.
At the Minister's request, the HSE is also putting in place a system of early warning measures to ensure that corrective action is taken as soon as problems are identified. The Mater has been instructed to ensure that all escalation measures are implemented and reviewed as necessary and that appropriate liaison arrangements with primary and community services are in place.
In the longer term, the Mater hospital is engaged in a significant building programme, which includes the provision of a new emergency department built to modern standards of functionality and space. The building programme also provides for 12 new operating theatres, providing a net increase in theatre capacity, and a new radiology department. These facilities will significantly address operational efficiency issues within the emergency department. The building programme is due to be completed in 2012 and is currently on schedule.
The overall task for the health services this year is to meet patients' needs and deliver the best possible services within the resources made available from taxpayers. The Minister and her Department will continue to engage with the HSE, and especially hospitals experiencing significant problems in this area, to secure improvements in the emergency department performance.
National Monuments
The Skellig Rock is one of only three world heritage sites in Ireland and of enormous religious, historical and archaeological importance. Thousands of visitors from around the world have been attracted to it down through the centuries. Few have left it without having their lives enhanced by the experience. The Office of Public Works, OPW, deserves great credit for the manner in which it has lovingly restored and maintained the structures on Skellig rock which are of enormous importance to our heritage.
A limited number of licences have been issued to boatmen who operate passenger boats from the mainland to the Skellig Rock and back. This helps contain the numbers visiting the rock, thereby limiting the possibility of damage through overcrowding or overvisiting. Recently, the OPW decided to dramatically shorten the traditional summer season at Sceilig Mhichíl. Both ends of the season are affected. In fact, the OPW has reduced the season by three months. This year a new OPW visitor guide was issued to all Sceilig Mhichíl ferryboats for distribution to all persons intending to visit the island. It contains a restriction for visits to the site outside the OPW advertised season which begins only from 25 May. Newly erected signs placed on the Skelligs also contain this notice to visitors. The boatmen have been informed similar notices will be sent to all tourism offices, guesthouses, etc, presently.
This reduction in the open season will have a devastating effect, not only on the ferryboats which may go out of business but also on the wider tourism industry of the south west already struggling in these difficult economic times. The traditional season has always been 21 April to 31 October. It is crucial that this be maintained. The OPW claims that Sceilig Mhichíl is inaccessible in April and May and that it cannot place guides and equipment on the island then. This is nonsense. Hundreds of tourists have landed there in these months for more than 45 years.
The boatmen were first informed by letter from the OPW in 2007 that the season would be formally defined and would only run from 18 May to 24 September that year. The OPW also offered that if for this year it was not able to set up residence on the island by 18 May, a guide would be in position at Portmagee to travel out with one of the passenger boats any day it was deemed possible to land on the island. This obvious solution was also reported in the 2008 UNESCO report which stated the OPW was prepared to look at the season and the provision of shore-based guides.
The provision of shore-based guides in April, May and October to travel to and from the island with the ferryboats, as initially suggested by the OPW, is the answer to keeping the traditional operating season open. It is the means of maintaining much needed jobs in the region. Yet, this offer has now been withdrawn and ruled out by the OPW once more.
I request the Minister to facilitate and accept the solution of shore-based guides in April, May and October to facilitate the boatmen, visitors and the tourism industry in south Kerry. In these difficult economic times, it behoves the Government and its agencies to assist people in making a livelihood, particularly in peripheral regions. It is disappointing in this case that the Government agency in question, the OPW, has come to a unilateral decision which dramatically affects the livelihoods of many in the tourism industry in south-west Kerry.
It is hard enough to make a living in peripheral regions in good economic times; even more so in difficult times. It is not the function of a State agency to inhibit people from making a living. The OPW's decision to unilaterally impose this ban on travelling to the Skellig Rock is an inhibiting factor in enabling people from making a living from tourism in south-west Kerry during the summer season. It is unacceptable. The arguments that the rock is unsafe or that people cannot land there in other months are spurious. It has been proved by data taken from the weather station at Valentia that the months in question have better weather conditions than the OPW claims for the other months.
The Minister must direct the OPW to maintain the status quo ante and ensure the Skellig Rock remains open, as it has done for the past 45 years.
Skellig Michael is a unique place. It is the best-preserved and most spectacularly situated early Christian monastic site in the world. Visiting it is a uniquely memorable experience; I visited it twice, once with my mother, once with my son. Most of the structures are in excellent condition, giving it an unusually high level of authenticity. Its importance is recognised internationally, having a much coveted UNESCO World Heritage Site status, the retention of which, as shown by the recent case of Dresden, is not unconditional.
The isolation of the site has been instrumental in helping in its preservation. In the 1970s, only four boats regularly brought visitors to the island. This number increased through the 1980s and the early 1990s to such an extent that visitors were causing noticeable wear to the access steps, part of the monument which are of dry-stone construction and consequently vulnerable to damage. Repairs had to be carried out on a weekly basis to maintain them and keep visitors safe. In addition to damage in the monastery, the large numbers visiting the site increased the risk of accident and caused problems of congestion.
The monastic enclosure is almost entirely constructed of dry-stone, which is vulnerable and can be easily damaged. By the early 1990s, the most important paving on the site had been considerably damaged by the volume of visitors passing over it. Accordingly, it was necessary to protect it from further damage by putting a new paving on top and, consequently, it can no longer be seen. Similar paving was also at risk.
It was in the context of this damage being caused to the site that the OPW in the mid-1990s made the decision that, if the site was to survive, there would have to be a limit placed on the numbers allowed to visit each year. Despite much discussion on how to limit numbers, it was felt nothing could be achieved without the agreement of the boatmen. A meeting took place in Cahirciveen in December 1994 between OPW representatives and 19 boatmen. The OPW view put forward at that meeting was to limit the number of licences to 15. However, compromise was agreed and 19 licences were issued but on the basis that over time this number would reduce to 15 when boatmen retired.
At that time, responsibility for policy in the heritage area rested with the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands. In March 1995, the Minister for Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands, having considered the outcome of the meeting held in Cahirciveen the previous December, formally approved the issuing of 19 permits for the 1995 season. Certain conditions attached such that the permit would apply only to the 1995 season; it would not be transferable to another operator; only one trip per day could be made in respect of each permit; boats could arrive at the pier not earlier than 9.30 a.m. and would leave not later than 5 p.m.; boats could not carry more than 12 passengers; boats had to have a valid passenger boat licence issued by the Minister for the Marine; and the permit could be withdrawn at any time, should any of the conditions not be complied with. Since then the number of permits issued has reduced to the optimum number of 15. This has occurred due to retirement of four of the operators, who it was agreed in December 1994, were entitled to a permit to land passengers.
The issue of the length of the season is related to the permits. Since the introduction of the permit system in 1995, the OPW has defined the season as late May to late September. This was always intended to mean the period of the year when the OPW had a guide presence on the island. This is essential for both the protection of the heritage of the island and for the safety of visitors. In 2007, the OPW was more specific stating the season would be from 18 May to 24 September. This brought more certainty when, subject to weather conditions, boat operators can land visitors on the island.
Part of the difficulty in previous years was not being able to set up guide accommodation on the island because of bad weather. Taking on board the broad recommendations of the Skellig Michael safety review, two weeks are required to make the necessary safety checks and undertake any repairs required to ensure the island is made safe for visitors and guides coming out.
The landing of visitors outside of when our guides are present is not acceptable from the OPW's viewpoint in terms of both the security of the site and the safety of the visitors. For example, some years back one of the crosses from the island disappeared when there was no guide presence. There is also a record of damage being caused to the site out of season, damage not normally associated with the prevailing weather.
The other issue is safety. When OPW guides are present on the island, a daily visual inspection of the steps and other places where visitors traverse is undertaken. This allows any necessary repair work such as removal of fallen stones etc. to take place before visitors arrive on the island. Without the presence of OPW guides, such inspections do not take place. In such circumstances, it is possible that visitors are being landed on the island when damage has been caused to the steps, for example, or there has been a rock fall or landslide and no one is present to advise them of this situation. In such circumstances, there is a risk to the safety of those people visiting the island. In addition, when OPW guides are on site, detailed arrangements are in place with the emergency services on the mainland in the event of an incident. No such arrangements are in place in the absence of OPW guides.
Tragically in 2009, two fatalities took place on Skellig Michael. One of these accidents took place when the site was officially closed and there was no OPW guide presence. The Office of Public Works engaged a consulting engineer with specific expertise in risk management to undertake a safety review of Skellig Michael. The objective of this review was to examine, assess and review the current health and safety regime, operational requirements, arrangements, controls and restrictions and staff structure, as they relate to works, guides and visitors and access, to ensure a safe environment on Skellig Michael insofar as is reasonably practicable. The report was published in April this year and a number of recommendations were made. In the view of OPW, both for the security of the island and the safety of visitors it is essential that visits only take place during the official opening period. To do otherwise is to leave OPW open to accusations that it is not properly protecting one of the three world heritage sites on the island of Ireland.
At the request of public representatives, I have agreed to meet with the boat operators again shortly with regard to their concerns about the length of the season and other conditions of the permit system and the implications of the acceptance of the safety review. I understand the importance of Skellig Michael from a tourist point of view and the livelihood of the boatmen. However, these must be integrated with other considerations. The safety report advised that OPW would consider extending the season in the context of a satisfactory resolution of other issues with the boatmen. I will study carefully what the Deputy has stated this evening.
Drug Treatment Programme
I acknowledge the co-operation of the office of the Ceann Comhairle to allow me to raise this important issue for my constituency. I also acknowledge the presence of the line Minister, Deputy Pat Carey. I am pleased he will have the opportunity to realise the significance of this disastrous decision for two community based drugs initiatives, one in Newcastle West, dealing with the greater west Limerick area. This programme has one employee. The second programme is also a community based programme and is based in Kilmallock. This covers the greater south Limerick area. It has one employee. I am unsure how many such programmes or support organisations are in place in Limerick city, Cork city or Dublin city, but I believe there are many. However, in my constituency there are two, one in Newcastle West and one in Kilmallock.
Both centres are being closed down because of difficulties with resources. I acknowledge that given the times in which we live, all statutory bodies are obliged to examine their budgets and live within their means because, unfortunately, there have been shortfalls in funding as a result of the economic situation in which we find ourselves. However, I am amazed that closing down these two programmes completely has been identified as the way to make up this shortfall.
In the case of Newcastle West, at present some 17 young people are met on a one-to-one basis. Many of these people have been referred by other State agencies, such as the probation service, Mental Health Ireland, HSE social workers and the Garda. These people have been left high and dry with no one to pick up the pieces and no support. The situation in Kilmallock is similar. I understand approximately 118 young people between the ages of 14 and 23 years were seen on a one-to-one basis between February and June 2010. This results from a referral system involving State agencies as well.
At I stated at the outset, the greatest issue is that there is no one to pick up the slack. We are continually trying to promote drug awareness. These two projects are run under the auspices of Foróige, a fantastic organisation which keeps people out of harm's way, brings them into a central place and works with them through various projects. Some months ago, I was proud when the Minister's predecessor, the Minister of State with responsibility for drug strategy, Deputy John Curran, came to the Newcastle West Foróige building and met those involved in the project. It was commendable to recognise the efforts of these people. Unfortunately, these people do not appear to have the necessary clout. We are in the sticks and we are seen as a small set-up, which is all the more reason to be supportive of such projects. There are many groups and organisations, whether statutory or voluntary, throughout cities and larger provincial towns which deal with such issues. Unfortunately, in this situation there is only one project in Newcastle West with one employee and one project in Kilmallock with one employee. At issue is the wages of two people. I am appalled and I believe it is a disgraceful decision. I fully understand that the Mid West Regional Drugs Task Force has autonomy, makes its own decisions and has been given independence. However, I appeal to the Minister to call on the relevant people to go back and look into their hearts to see if they can justify the decision taken. I am certain the task force has a substantial budget to promote drug awareness and I am disgusted, to say the least, that it has decided to go down this route. I look forward to the reply from the Minister.
I thank Deputy Cregan for raising this important matter and I hope to address his concerns. My Department has overall responsibility for co-ordinating the implementation of the national drugs strategy 2009-2016. Solid progress is being made on the implementation of the various actions of the strategy across its five pillars of supply reduction, prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and research. This is in line with the Government's commitment to address problem drug use in Ireland in the most comprehensive way possible.
One of the recent highlights was the introduction of regulations by my colleague, the Minister for Health and Children, under the Misuse of Drugs Acts that make the possession and sale of a wide range of psychoactive substances illegal and subject to criminal sanctions. In addition, legislation is being drafted by the Minister for Justice and Law Reform that will make it a criminal offence to sell or supply substances that are not prohibited under the Misuse of Drugs Act, but which have psychoactive effects on humans.
The Garda Síochána and the Customs Service continue to prioritise the targeting of those involved in the supply of drugs and I congratulate them on their recent successes in this area, both nationally and abroad.
From 2002 up to 2009, approximately €197 million has been made available for drugs initiatives funded by my Department, in the main through the 14 local and the ten regional drugs task forces. In 2009, some 340 projects under the local drugs task forces were supported to the value of almost €22 million. Approximately €10 million was expended to support 146 projects in regional drugs task force areas. Further funding in 2009 also supported 14 cocaine-specific projects, with an allocation of approximately €0.55 million; ten rehabilitation-specific projects, with an allocation of €0.35 million; and three drug-related projects dealing with homeless people, which received an allocation of 0.46 million.
In addition, capital expenditure of almost €2.12 million in 2009 supported six large scale projects, predominantly in the regional drugs task force areas, including targeted funding for Limerick city. In 2010, in excess of €31 million in current funding is being made available to fund the activities of the task forces, of which approximately €21 million is being allocated to the local task forces and €10 million to the regional task forces. This funding will support some 500 initiatives that the task forces have prioritised for investment in their respective areas. In addition, recently I announced that funding of €600,000 is being made available for small-scale capital projects in the task force areas, building on the success of a similar initiative in 2009. Applications for funding from my Department are made through the relevant local or regional drugs taskforce.
It is a matter for each taskforce to decide which projects to fund, based on agreed priorities for their areas and within the overall budget available to them. During 2010, in light of the economic climate, all taskforces, including the mid west regional drugs taskforce, were asked to identify savings across their areas of responsibility. I appreciate that there have been difficult choices to make but each drugs taskforce is required to work within their allocated budgets.
The overall funding for the taskforces this year is less than it was in 2009. In response to the reduced budget, the mid west regional drugs task force withdrew funding to projects that did not have a pay element from January to June 2010 and continued to fund projects with pay costs until the end of June 2010. During this period, an independent evaluation of all projects was carried out to ascertain the best practices and the best use of resources.
Independent consultants carried out the evaluation which was in two parts. First, it addressed the key actions for the taskforce and how they were being addressed and re-assessed the mid-west regional drugs taskforce's priorities into specific actions under the five pillars of the national drugs strategy 2009-16. Second, it assessed all funded projects for their appropriateness, best practice and value for money.
Arising from the evaluation, eight projects were not recommended for continued funding. In regard to the seven projects, including the ones mentioned by Deputy Cregan, the evaluation recommended a re-configuration of this youth intervention to a central project to ensure better co-ordination, specialist support and intervention and best value for money. These projects will not be funded after the end of June 2010 but youth services will be brought together to develop one re-configured project to address this need. Two working groups have been set up by the taskforce to identify key priorities for education-prevention and for treatment-rehabilitation in accordance with the evaluation findings.
It was agreed that all of the existing funded youth projects be invited to participate in this process. I understand that both groups came together at the end of May and put a joint proposal to the taskforce to put in place a substance misuse team which will address the prevention and treatment actions for the under 18s. The taskforce agreed this proposal and is costing the proposal at present.
Through my co-ordination role across the strategy, Deputy Cregan will appreciate that I am working hard to ensure that the optimum use is made of the available resources, which will again total a substantial amount. As part of this, every effort will be made to protect front-line services to the greatest extent possible. I am satisfied that the investment being made, including the approximately €1.6 million made available to the mid west regional drugs task force in 2010, will continue to address problem drug use in a meaningful and real way and will protect front-line services to the greatest extent possible.
I am well aware of the work being done by the taskforces and I am satisfied that they continue to make a positive impact on the drugs problem in Ireland. I undertake to have this issue examined in greater detail and I will communicate with the Deputy shortly. I hope to meet some members of that regional drugs task force fairly soon and I will get an update.
Fisheries Conservation
I welcome the Minister, Deputy Carey, and thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating this matter. The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 were made on 2 June 2010 and have been operational since 11 June 2010. The Loughs Agency, with the approval of the North-South Ministerial Council and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, introduced the regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 13(1) of the Foyle Fisheries Act 1952.
The Minister, Deputy Ryan, stated that the regulations have been introduced because "the numbers of migrating salmon counted going upstream in the Rivers Mourne, Faughan, Roe and Finn are below the specified stock level target numbers". In practice the regulation prevents 28 commercial fishermen, ten draftnet fishermen and 18 driftnet fishermen who did not opt into the voluntary buy-out scheme three years ago from fishing Lough Foyle for salmon in 2010. Last week the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, told me in response to a parliamentary question that these 28 fishermen will not be provided with loss of earnings compensation.
This is a flawed fishery management framework. Everybody understands and supports the principle of conservation. Our marine industry is in trouble and it will die completely if we do not have fish stocks. That is accepted. However, the fishery management framework that underpins this regulation assumes that commercial fishermen are exclusively responsible for depletion of fish stock. That is a very simplistic and naive argument.
The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 is the 20th conservation regulation imposed on Lough Foyle commercial fishermen since 2007 and the Government still has not taken any action to curb predator seals and cormorant birds that forage on fish stocks in Lough Foyle. A study entitled Assessment of Harbour Seal Predation on adult salmonoids in a Pacific Northwest Estuary written by Bryan Wright, Susan D. Riemer and Robin F. Brown notes that harbour seals consumed one fifth of the estimated salmon run in the marine site they chose for the purposes of research. The study calls for a new fishery management framework with reference to control of abundant nature species.
I refer to the seal population. The Irish Marine Institute estimated in 2000 that 6,976 seals live off the Irish coast. That was ten years ago. There is no comprehensive up-to-date study but we know that seal populations have exploded since top predation ended.
I refer to the Lough Foyle cormorants and seals. In the case of Lough Foyle salmon, cormorants eat the smolts, the young salmon, that leave the lough for salt water and then seals kill the mature salmon that return. The adult seal eats 1.9 kg of salmon per day. The seal also kills for sport. Multiplied over a year and leaving aside salmon killed by seals for sport, the adult seal may eat up to 730 kg of salmon per annum. The average seasonal return of a Lough Foyle commercial net fisherman is 650 kg, which is less. One seal kills more salmon stock than one commercial salmon fisherman. Anecdotal evidence confirms that there are more than 28 seals in Lough Foyle. Seals are killing more Lough Foyle salmon than commercial fishermen.
I refer to the case for compensation. The livelihood of 28 commercial fishermen is seriously damaged by this ban. These men did not sign up to the salmon hardship fund offered to salmon fishermen in 2007 because they did not anticipate this ban.
Will the Government commission a survey on the number of predator seals and cormorants on Lough Foyle? Does it agree that the fishery management framework needs to be broadened to possibly include control of abundant predator species? Is either of the Foyle Fisheries Act 1952 or the Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulation 2010 subject to derogation?
This debate is not facile and the solutions are not simplistic. I spoke to Michelle Gildernew, MLA, the Minister's counterpart in Stormont yesterday. I understood her say that it is a very black and white issue. There is no salmon so commercial fisherman are banned.
There is an opportunity to allow fishermen to fish on a small scale with small boats, small quotas and for a limited number of days at sea. It would get people back working. It is an opportunity for the Government to get people along the coast working again. I ask the Minister not to bring the debate down to a facile level, that is, that commercial fishermen are destroying the stock. They are not because they are not even fishing.
I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Conor Lenihan. The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 were made by the Loughs Agency which as Deputy McHugh knows is a North-South body under the co-sponsorship of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland. The Loughs Agency is responsible for the protection and conservation of inland fisheries in the Foyle and Carlingford areas.
The 2010 regulations were made following a long period of consultation and development in order to meet the agency's national and international obligations, including the requirements of the European Habitats Directive. The regulations provide for a practical and equitable response to falling salmon numbers in the Foyle system. They allow for the suspension or restriction of angling or the use of nets on the Rivers Mourne, Faughan, Roe and Finn when necessary to conserve stocks, especially in times of drought or flood.
This addresses the fact that salmon stocks in the Foyle system were no longer meeting sustainability targets. There was particular concern over the impact of commercial fishing on the remaining stocks which only met 40% of their management targets last year. It should be noted that the issue of declining stocks has been the subject of a formal compliant to the European Commission in May 2010.
The complaint maintains that the use of 18 driftnet and ten draftnets within the Foyle system is not consistent with the requirements of the Habitats Directive. It argues that this fishing is indiscriminate in nature as it catches salmon from the weakest rivers in the system as well as from those that meet their conservation targets.
The Deputy will be aware that salmon stocks exploited in Lough Foyle by the commercial interceptory fishery up to 2006 had been achieving their conservation limits. However, scientific advice for 2006 indicated that a rationalisation of the fishery was necessary both to protect stock levels and to maintain the future viability of the commercial fishery. In May 2007, approval was given by the North-South Ministerial Council for the introduction of a suite of salmon conservation measures to be administered by the Loughs Agency. Regulations agreed by the council provided the agency with the necessary powers to manage wild salmon stocks in the Foyle and Carlingford areas. This was in compliance with the EU habitats directive and the recommendations of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation.
At that time, a hardship scheme was introduced in recognition of the impact that cessation of the mixed stock fishery at sea would have on traditional salmon fishermen. The scheme was introduced by the Loughs Agency in conjunction with its sponsor Departments — the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland. It was offered on a voluntary basis to former drift and draft net licence holders who were active during the period 2002 to 2006. The salmon hardship scheme was intended to provide a measure of relief to individual licence holders in line with the degree of hardship arising from the closure of the interceptory fishery seaward of Lough Foyle. The scheme was jointly funded by the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. The total cost of the scheme was €3.8 million.
The number of drift nets that operated in the Foyle area reduced significantly from 112 to 18 and the number of draft nets which operated within the Lough and River Foyle decreased from 50 to ten. It should be stressed that the commercial nets-men who have not been issued with licences in 2010 were made aware in 2007 that if they did not accept the scheme, any future suspension or closure of the fishery would not attract hardship payments.
In the circumstances, there is no question of the suspended commercial interceptory fishery being reopened until stock levels allow. While there can be understandable sympathy for those impacted by the necessary suspension, introducing a new hardship scheme for fishermen who decided not to avail of the scheme previously introduced is not an option at this time. These fishermen made a choice to continue fishing rather than take the hardship scheme when there were serious concerns about the scale in the decline in salmon numbers in Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, if stock levels improve to a point where there is a harvestable surplus, then the regulations allow for the reopening of the fishery.
With regard to the Deputy's supplementary questions, I will arrange to have them examined by the Minister and the Department and I will ask him to communicate directly with the Deputy.
The Dáil adjourned at 10.45 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 23 June 2010.