Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 11 Jul 1990

Vol. 401 No. 5

Adjournment Debate. - Salmon Fishing Regulations.

Mr. Deasy

The salmon review group was set up in September 1986 by the then Minister for Fisheries and published their report in November 1987. The group recommended the lifting of the ban on the use of monofilament netting for salmon fishing. They made this recommendation in the light of the fact that the law could not be effectively implemented as far as large boats were concerned, and that the fisheries protection officers could only apprehend small boats fishing close to the shore.

That is the nub of the problem facing us today and for many years past. The small inshore fishermen are being victimised whereas the large trawlers fishing long distances from the shore are able to use monofilament nets and thus exploit our salmon stocks without being apprehended by the fisheries protection officers. It is a case of the big man being able to get away with blue murder while the small inshore fishermen have to pay the price for the big man's sins. Entire coastal communities have been harassed and hounded during the past number of years because they use the only method of fishing which enables them to make a living — monofilament net fishing. The review group admitted to that fact in their report, and it is a disgrace that the Minister will not accept their recommendations.

The salmon review group were quite representative. They were a high powered group, the chairman being the Secretary of the Department of the Marine, Mr. Fionán Ó Muircheartaigh and the other members included the chief officer of the Central Fisheries Board; a chief superintendent of the Garda Síochána; the commander of the Irish Naval Service; an inspector and scientific adviser from the Department of the Marine; a principal officer from the inland fisheries section of the Department of the Marine; an assistant principal officer from the Department of Justice acting as an observer; an inspector and an engineer from the Department of the Marine; a principal officer from the wildlife service of the Office of Public Works; and another assistant principal from the inland fisheries section of the Department of the Marine together with an inspector of fisheries from the Department of the Marine — all people of high repute and standing. They recommended in November 1987, that drift net salmon fishermen should be allowed to use monofilament nets, yet nothing has been done since that date to implement their recommendations.

I have come into this House on numerous occasions and have advocated strongly during debates and at Question Time that the findings of the group be implemented. I have been greeted by a wall of silence both from the Minister for the Marine and the Minister of State at that Department, who gives the impression they could not care less. I would like to ask them who advised the experts who drew up this report?

I raised this matter on the Order of Business yesterday. The Taoiseach and the Minister for the Marine were highly offended that I dared do such a thing. I know we have had a recent tragedy but the problem has been with us for some time. The expert group recommended a solution two and a half years ago but nothing has been done in that regard. In recent months, six people have died on the south coast and I am saying they died specifically because nothing has been done to implement the findings of the report of the salmon review group.

An Ceann Comhairle

I would much prefer if there was no reference to that sad tragedy. I gave the Deputy permission to raise a specific matter in respect of the use of monofilament nets——

Mr. Deasy

The fact is that it is directly involved, as The Cork Examiner stated on Monday——

An Ceann Comhairle

Do not elaborate Deputy, it is a separate tragedy.

Mr. Deasy

——that people died while they were in the process of hauling in monofilament nets.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy is ignoring the recommendations of the ruling of the Chair.

Mr. Deasy

On 10 May last I referred in the House to the two young fishermen who were drowned off Bunmahon, County Waterford, while they were fishing. I do not believe those accidents would have happened if the law had been amended in the way recommended by the committee. How many more people, fishermen or fishery protection officers, will have to die before the committee's report is implemented into law?

The committee, who are the real experts, fishermen, representatives of the fishermen and editorials in The Cork Examiner have advocated that the law should be changed so that we will have a reasonable regime whereby people will be able to fish and earn a living without having to suffer the consequences of their actions, be it drowning, imprisonment or fines which they cannot pay. Thousands of people who live around the coast, including hundreds in my constituency, are affected in this way.

This is not a subjective matter; it is a matter of right and wrong. How can we expect people to make a living when they are not allowed to use a catching mechanism which will actually net fish? The old nylon net is obsolete, ineffective and is not capable of earning a living for even the most hardworking fishermen. It is a disgrace that the inshore fishermen, who work in open boats in all kinds of weather are put at the mercy of the sea and at the end of the day may not catch any fish, have their nets confiscated and have to go to prison for their efforts. Is it fair that this should be allowed to continue to happen?

As I have said, The Cork Examiner has been more than adequate in its reporting on this matter by way of staff reporting and editorials. This very impartial group of people have come down steadfastly in favour of allowing monofilament netting to be used by fishermen. I ask the Minister to listen to the pleas of fishermen, their representatives and the members of the committee who compiled the report and who heard submissions from individuals and interest groups throughout the country for months on end. Will the Minister listen to the people who know? I want to again ask him why nothing has been done in this regard and how many more people will have to die.

Nobody envies the fishermen or the fishery protection officers who have a terrible job to do. The Garda Síochána, the Naval Service and the fishery protection officers are constantly in conflict with the fishermen. Both sides know the rights of the matter but they are in conflict because the laws are outdated and no effort has been made to change them. The fishery officers, the Garda and the Naval Service have to implement the law as it is laid down. This inadequate law should be scrapped and replaced by something meaningful, useful and reasonable.

An Ceann Comhairle

I have to tell the Deputy that his time is up. He might now bring his remarks to a close.

Mr. Deasy

It is time the Government faced up to this issue. I cannot understand why they have not done so by now. They have had two-and-a-half years to consider the committees report, which is the essence of good sense. The law as it stands is making criminals out of good, decent people and, worse still, fishermen and fishery protection officers are being drowned as a result of it.

An Ceann Comhairle

I have to call on the Minister now.

Mr. Deasy

It is not good enough that this should be allowed to continue in a civilised society.

Minister of State at the Department of the Marine (Mr. Noonan,

Limerick West): While I was listening to Deputy Deasy I could not help but recall that he was a senior Minister in a Government who did damn all in regard——

Mr. Deasy

We commissioned the report.

Mr. Noonan

(Limerick West): They had the opportunity to do something but they did not. Now he is coming in here and crying crocodile tears——

Mrs. Taylor-Quinn

We commissioned the report.

An Ceann Comhairle

Order, please. Deputy Deasy was heard devoid of interruption of any kind. The Minister has five minutes at his disposal and I insist that he be allowed to reply as a sheer matter of courtesy.

Mr. Deasy

Do not let him mislead the House.

An Ceann Comhairle

If Deputy Deasy finds it difficult to listen to what the Minister has to say there is a remedy — there are many ways out of this Chamber.

Mr. Deasy

If what the Minister says is not true I will contradict him.

An Ceann Comhairle

I have already wasted some of his precious time.

Mrs. Taylor-Quinn

The Minister is making inciting comments.

An Ceann Comhairle

Please, Deputy, let us have a sense of fair play.

Mr. Noonan

(Limerick West): The Government of which Deputy Deasy was a member did damn all for the fishermen.

Mr. Deasy

We commissioned a report.

Mr. Noonan

(Limerick West): They had the opportunity of doing something but they did not do it.

The background to the long-standing prohibition on the use of monofilament netting in fishing for salmon was set out fully in my reply to a previous Adjournment Debate on this issue on 20 November 1989 and I do not consider it necessary to go over the same ground again here tonight.

The Deputy referred to the Salmon Review Group. I want to refer to their report which was published in January 1988. This was a wide-ranging report which dealt comprehensively with a whole range of issues involving the conservation, exploitation and development of salmon stocks. It was not, as the Deputy tried to convey to this House, a selective report. The recommendations in the report on the future management of the salmon resource made a number of specific proposals in relation to the drift-net fishery in the sea which accounts at present, as it has done for the past 20 years or so, for the vast bulk of the Irish Salmon catch. These proposals — I want the Deputy to listen carefully to them — which have to be taken together as a whole, would involve (a) introducing a system of quotas and tagging of all dead Salmon; (b) introducing a system of log books; (c) shortening the season for drift netting by six weeks; (d) tightening up the regulations for observing the weekly close time when no commercial salmon fishing is allowed at weekends — Saturday and Sunday — and possibly extending the duration of that close time; (e) restricting further the size of boat to be used in salmon drift netting; (f) reducing the zone in which drift netting is allowed progressively from 12 miles to nine miles, then to six miles and possibly to three miles from baselines——

Mr. Deasy

Will the Minister implement those proposals?

Mr. Noonan

(Limerick West):——and (g) introducing a number of other measures regarding licensing of fishermen and agents, grant-aiding the purchase of vessels and marking and identification of same.

The actual recommendation of the group on this matter was, and I quote:

Provided agreement is obtained from the fishermen and the industry and that they operate this new regime, and that for as long as they comply with the provision of such a scheme in practice, the ban on monofilament should be Suspended. If on adoption, co-operation and compliance with the new regime is not forthcoming the Group believes that the only remaining credible management and conservation option that would achieve the objectives set out would be complete banning of drift netting.

All this was in the context of an earlier recommendation, and I quote:

The primary objective of Government policy should be the rehabilitation of salmon Stocks and their rational management. This necessarily involves firstly the regulation and secondly the curtailment of drift net fishing effort at sea.

Following the publication of the report submissions were invited from interested parties on the contents of the report as a whole and, in all, submissions were received from 77 parties. These submissions revealed that a lack of consensus existed on some of the central elements of the report's recommendations and, in particular, those dealing with drift netting and the use of monofilament. In the absence of the kind of broad-based agreement envisaged for the regime in the report the Minister could not proceed with these complex arrangements. That remains the position.

Mr. Deasy

It was inaction and dereliction of duty.