Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 10 December 2020
206. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications his plans to introduce attendant by-laws to deal with salmonid conservation; if he will provide a draft of these bye-laws; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42620/20]
View answerThe annual Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations which provide for the management, development and conservation of stocks of wild salmon and sea trout by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), were published on 12 November last and are available at www.gov.ie/salmontaggingregulations. They are currently out to statutory public consultation. These regulations provide for the status of each salmon river (open to harvest, closed to harvest or open to catch and release angling) and the tagging and recording requirements for exploitation of the resource, in respect of the 2021 season The status of each river and the surplus (if any) available for harvest set out the in the Regulations is based on annual scientific assessment of each genetically unique river stock by the independent Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS) which underpins annual management advice by IFI.
A suite of annual secondary legislation (bye-laws) is currently being drafted and mainly involves additional conservation measures for individual fisheries (rivers) or groups of fisheries to reflect the status of the rivers contained in the Regulations. In particular, they contain measures to ensure that the provisions in relation to catch and release status contained in the regulations are not compromised by the use of equipment or baits not conducive to the survival of fish.
These bye-laws will be available on the gov.ie website in due course.
