My Department has received a number of items of correspondence from the North Atlantic Salmon Fund, NASF, in recent years and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, met with the chairman of that organisation, Mr. Orri Vigfússon, in 2003, to discuss the organisation's general concerns about the netting of wild salmon by Irish commercial fishermen.
One of the key concerns expressed by NASF relates to the interception, in Irish home water fisheries, of wild salmon not destined for Irish waters. While the Irish Government acknowledges this concern, NASF will be fully aware that the Government does not accept the validity of the argument that its salmon management regime does not comply with international legislation or best practice. Nor do we accept that there is any sound or agreed scientific basis for the allegations made that the Irish salmon drift net fishery has an unacceptable impact on salmon stocks in other European countries.