Thank you, Chairman, for your invitation and for allowing me to address the committee. Our federation's submission has been circulated to members. With your permission, I will develop some of the salient points in it.
The Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers are the eyes and ears on rivers and fresh waters in Ireland. However, to pursue the sport of angling we must clear several impediments every year. We must ensure that fish are in the rivers. There are also a number of community duties to be performed every year. On the main rivers of Ireland there are 70 clubs and about 14,000 members dipping in and out of different rivers, and there are 22 members on the federation's executive committee. That is who we are.
Our submission outlines our concerns and we appreciate the committee's interest in dealing with them. We have a history of dealing with the equivalent committee in previous parliamentary sessions. We made substantial progress with the help of the previous Chairman, Deputy Noel O'Flynn. To a large extent, our lobbying was on the netting side and the extent of exploitation in the rivers.
The life cycle of the salmon is simple. It spawns in the river and goes to sea after a couple of years, migrating as a smolt out into the north Atlantic where the feeding replenishes it. It returns to the river to spawn, coming back as either a one or multi-sea winter fish.
On 1 November 2006 the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, decided to end drift netting. A buy-out scheme is under way. There are a number of problems relating to it, but that is not what I intend to touch on today.
The most important issue to highlight is water quality. First, there can be damage, contamination and pollution in our waterways. Second, water quality can affect the life cycle and habitat of the wild Atlantic salmon and sea trout that spawn in the rivers. Our main concern relates to aquaculture, which we target in the form of fin-fish farming. That industry is directed into the bays and estuaries of our main rivers and nearly always involves the production of farmed salmon with feeding pens or cages.
I have summarised in the submission the five areas that I would like to develop. The first is to review the impact of aquaculture on water quality and salmon and sea trout with a view to recommending solutions based on closed containment of fish cages. In previous sessions there was joined-up thinking in the policy on fisheries and freshwater rivers. To quote many people, all things are connected. However, with the division of the marine functions into the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, we have a split again in the life cycle of salmon and the freshwater river that is its habitat. As such, we have to direct our concern on aquaculture to this committee under the headings of natural resources and the quality of water being produced.
I could go on, but the nine recommendations are included in our submission. I can give the committee an example. In the 1980s and 1990s, when Connemara was pushing hard on fish farming, Donegal Bay was designated an industrial-free bay. What happened was that all the towns around it, from Bundoran to Killybegs, calculated that they needed about £300 million to deal with the sewerage problems and to develop the towns from a tourism point of view. The development is about halfway through and the amount of sewage and sewerage capacity are being dealt with. However, in Dunkineely, for example, more is being produced from fish farms in the bay.
On one side, we have a series of clean water problems on our beaches to deal with. Schemes to deal with sewage and the allocation of money through the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government are doing this well. Although we always complain about there not being enough money spent on these areas, work is actually happening. On the other side, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food — it was previously the responsibility of the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources — has allocated licences to develop fish farms out in the bay.
That demonstrates that we need complete and joined-up thinking. If the committee could achieve one thing from today, it would be to get the Departments to agree to co-ordinate policy on freshwater rivers. It is a multi-Department responsibility, but we have a problem in that the salmon habitat comes under the responsibility of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. From that point of view, we have a couple of other issues that we are anxious to pursue if we are to build on what we have submitted to the committee. The most important development in previous sessions occurred in November 2003, when a good report and analysis of the contributors' views was produced. Sadly, no policy decision in the Government followed it up. We anxiously await something new.
The latest Government document that I have on the position of aquaculture and salmon is a draft presentation to the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation, an international body which is holding a conference at Asturias in June. To say the Government has highlighted issues and targets for the future would be a fair summary. To say that has not been done before is another fair comment. I acknowledge that progress within the Government on submitting the document for the meeting in June. As an angling body and a non-governmental organisation at the conference, we will scrutinise and mark it from the international point of view. We have found it difficult to put across our policies and the international element — using our international colleagues in the NGOs to pursue them — has been one of our strongest lobbying points.
The issue is at a crucial point, because this is the first opportunity we have had to address the committee. We see the committee as a way to make progress. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, was a member of the previous committee and has great respect for how it works. I imagine, therefore, that he will take serious heed of what happens here. It is something on which we received strong co-operation from all Deputies but from the Minister, in particular.
Aquaculture and its impact on fisheries are the targets. The solution is not to say we should end the fin-fish farming industry. It is actually going through a difficult time, as there are market embargoes and there is a lot of dumping. However, the biggest problem is that Norwegian companies have the predominant ownership of sites in Ireland. The other point is that they are operating under standards that are not allowed in Norway, but the marketing of our fish product is facing a serious market impediment from the Norwegians.
The most important thing that has happened in the last 20 years has been the shift in focus within the debate to what is happening in the bay. People have become more concerned about water quality indicators such as the sea lice figures for each year. The information we have compiled on the bays of Ireland has been presented to the committee in graph form. The figures were obtained from the Marine Institute, the statutory authority at the time, as well as from the Department. We are not saying we merely suspect that this country's clean water is contaminated — we are pointing to results which show clearly that its performance is poor.
The aquaculture sector provided important employment in certain parts of the country in the 1980s and 1990s when there were no other jobs in such places. Between 70% and 80% of those working in the sector which involves difficult and tough labour are not Irish. However, I accept that all employment is important to the economy. The requirements of the tourism authorities also need to be considered in this context. Do we want to damage further this country's tourism product? If current trends continue, we will be unable to say our beaches are accessible, attractive and have a good quality of water.
The success or otherwise of Marine Harvest, a major company which accounts for a high percentage of the global market, is a strong litmus test for the industry. The company has some facilities in this country, including my home county of Donegal. The major shareholder, Mr. John Fredriksen who is from Norway, admitted last year that there should be no fish farms in salmon habitats such as estuaries. That was a major admission. As there are plenty of fjords in Norway which are not salmon habitats, companies there have a large choice of production sites. Ireland has just one fjord — Killary Harbour. All other locations, including beaches which are important for tourism, are clear habitats for salmon. Ireland is no longer seen as remote. We need to manage our resources much better. That is the objective of my visit to the committee.
We have asked the Department to monitor the manner in which nets are being used to exploit fish stocks and hope it will do so. A number of things are happening. The buy-outs have involved licensed drift-net fishermen. The draft-netting sector was a small and sustainable industry when it was under single stock management. Its framework is now being developed in a manner that may involve a return to draft-netting. I cite the example of the River Feale in the Chairman's local area. It is a strong, prolific and potentially good river. It is the jewel in the crown of the north Kerry angling tourism sector. Two of its tributaries — the River Galey and the River Brick — are closed to anglers because they do not carry enough salmon. They are well below the conservation line. However, a quota of 3,500 fish is allowed down the channel, but the fishermen were unable to catch that amount of fish in the nets last year.
Anglers do not mind giving up fish if they are asked to do so with a specific purpose in mind — for example, as part of an attempt to get the river to replenish at some stage. However, it does not make sense if draft-netting is taking place in the same area and fish are being impeded as they try to swim upstream. Like the netsmen, we were asked to make some sacrifices last year. Some 26 rivers in County Donegal were closed to fishermen, but that is not the hard part. People were originally asked to pay €30 for their licences. They paid €64 until last year. The fee has increased to €134 this year. Some compare such prices to the cost of a golf club membership. Anglers tend to move around the country to fish. The price increases led to a reduction of almost 50% in the number of licences being bought last year, but the amount of money being taken in doubled. The fisheries boards are probably not losing that much revenue, but the level of participation in our sport, a healthy activity, has halved. One can participate in angling throughout one's lifetime — it is not like football which one can play for a relatively short period of one's life. We are encouraging people to participate in other sports.
