Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 February 2023
128. Deputy Imelda Munster asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications when his Department will contact draft net fishing licenceholders to allow draft net fishing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7023/23]
View answer129. Deputy Imelda Munster asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will consider allowing a shorter draft net fishing season if fish stocks are lower than quotas allow for the regular draft net fishing season; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7024/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 128 and 129 together.
I recently enacted the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Regulations for 2023 which came into operation on 1 January last and set out, inter alia, the status of each of Ireland‘s more than 140 salmon rivers as open, open to catch and release or closed to harvest. These regulations are based on the annual management advice of Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) supported by independent annual scientific assessments by the Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS) on the basis that each river has a genetically unique stock.
The draft regulations are advertised nationally and subject to a 30 day public consultation in November each year and any person with an interest in the fishing industry is aware of this.
In respect of rivers open to harvest and on which a commercial fishery exists, the annual Control of Fishing for Salmon Order for 2023, to regulate commercial fishing, is currently being drafted in my Department, in advance of the commercial fishing season, in May. Opening and closing dates for individual fisheries are varied in the context of the surplus available.
In setting out the annual fisheries legislation, successive Minsters since 2006 have acted in line with the Government decision of that year that salmon management is to be aligned with scientific advice. In that regard, the primary determinant of facilitating fishing is the availability of a harvestable surplus above the individual rivers conservation limit which is the number of adult spawning fish required to maintain a viable population as scientifically established.
Allowing harvest of rivers below their conservation limit is not permitted as this would increase pressures on already vulnerable stocks and potentially severely damage their longer term viability and the biodiversity in their aquatic habitat. In that context such a decision to facilitate harvest in these circumstances would be irresponsible and run counter to the conservation imperative and the EU Habitats Directive. As already state scientific assessments are carried out annually when the status of each stock is reviewed.
