I thank the Chairman and committee members for inviting me to speak to the committee. I am here ostensibly to talk about the Central Fisheries Board annual report for 2007 and I propose to give an overview of the fisheries service. Many members will be familiar with the fisheries service and the Central Fisheries Board but others may not be so familiar. I will divide my presentation into two sections. I will talk about the fisheries service and then I will focus on the Central Fisheries Board and its role.
The mission of the Central Fisheries Board is to ensure that the valuable natural resources of inland fisheries and sea-angling are conserved, managed, developed and promoted. Those four words are enshrined in legislation. The mission is to promote these resources in their own right and to support sustainable economic activity, recreational amenities and job creation.
The principal function of the Central Fisheries Board is to provide advice to the Minister to allow for policy formulation and development and to answer any scientific questions. Other functions include supporting, co-ordinating and providing specialist support services to the regional fisheries boards, for example, in the areas of human resources, finance, science, etc. I am accompanied by the director of human resources. We advise the Minister on the effective and efficient performance by the regional boards of their functions and also the national and international development of the promotion and marketing of angling with other State agencies and regional fisheries boards. It is all about promoting game, sea and coarse angling. We provide a research and development service to the regional fisheries boards, the Minister and other State agencies. These are the principal but not the only functions of the Central Fisheries Board.
I have brought along an organogram to show to members. It is not factually accurate in that not all staff members are represented but it gives a sense of the organisation. I am the chief executive officer and I am in the fortunate position of having five directors reporting to me. The vast majority of staff work in the research and development division of the Central Fisheries Board. They consist of senior research officers, research officers, technicians and fisheries assistants. The core function of that division is research and development, providing research services. The next division is the field service division which provides catch management services, the co-ordination of large protection vessels — two LPVs. We have fleet protection and warehouse management and also salmon management services. Every salmon caught in this country is tagged and recorded in log books and licences. All this information comes to our offices under the salmon management programme.
The next division is the angling marketing division and its core function is the promotion and development of angling in Ireland. Its aim is to encourage more Irish people to take up angling and also to encourage international angling visitors. To this end we have a number of advisers on angling. This area was previously split into game, sea and coarse angling but we now adopt a multifunctional approach where the advisers look after all angling. We also have an angling information officer who provides information to the likes of other State agencies, tour groups, angling clubs and so on. The website has been moved away recently from ICT and into the angling and marketing promotion division. The human resources division is a service provider to the regional fisheries boards. The bulk of the work in this division is in the provision of services to our regional fisheries board colleagues. The division includes HR operations, training and development and the health and safety executive who provides health and safety advice and services.
The final division is finance and ICT which provides a number of services to the Central Fisheries Board but predominantly the division is focused outwards to the regional fisheries board colleagues. We do the payroll for all the fisheries service, both accounts receivable and accounts payable, and we also have an ICT function. This is an overview of the organisation of the Central Fisheries Board.
The principal function of the regional fisheries boards is the protection and conservation of the inland fisheries resource as per the Acts and the preparation and development of inland fisheries management plans. They also have a marketing and promotion function in terms of game, sea and coarse angling and they work hand in glove with our own division. The regional fisheries boards have a role in co-operating and co-ordinating with other regional fisheries boards and also with the Central Fisheries Board to ensure that we achieve efficient deployment of resources. They also have a role in promoting private fisheries to achieve best management practice for conservation and the management of fisheries. These are the principal functions of the regional fisheries boards.
In terms of a generic regional fisheries board structure, there is a CEO and they all have an assistant CEO. Typically in the head office they would have an administrative function helping with the day-to-day running of the business. It is then broken down by fishery districts. Each fishery district is broadly headed up by an inspector who would have one or a number of assistant inspectors reporting to him or her. Each assistant inspector would have one or a number of fishery officers.
In a broad sense, the regional fisheries work is broken down into two main categories of protection and development. Where there is protection, the vast majority of staff are fishery officers. Where considerable development goes on, many general operatives and foremen are involved. They are very much to the fore in doing the development work of the fisheries service. There is another string to the bow of the regional fisheries boards relating to environmental services. The boards all have senior fishery environmental officers and environmental officers. Their function is to investigate pollution infringements and work with State agencies and local authorities to ensure the best outcomes are achieved on water management with a fisheries focus. That will give members a sense of the regional fisheries board structure.
I will give a quick snapshot of who we are. The fisheries service has approximately 425 staff of whom 297 are permanent, 104 are temporary and 24 are EU-funded. The permanent complement of staff is reasonably constant subject to the normal vagaries of staff turnover. The temporary staff numbers depend in many cases on the season and also the project-funded staff numbers go up and down as projects are taken on or concluded. The total Vote for the fisheries service is €28.6 million and last year the water framework was funded separately at €2.93 million. The next line on the PowerPoint slide gives a sense of the breakdown of the Vote between the boards. Some 65% to 70% of the money we receive is spent on salaries. Of the remaining non-salary money, as a rule of thumb, 65% to 70% is used essentially for fixed costs, including rent, rates, etc. The free cash available for fishery development work is quite limited.
Regarding the resource itself, we have approximately 74,000 km of rivers. Most of them are first and second-order streams, which means they are approximately 1.5 m or 2 m wide — small streams. There are 12,026 lakes, most of which are less than 1 ha. Members will gather from this that the resources are very well spread. We are not talking about two or three great lakes or three or four big rivers — the kind of situation that may exist in certain countries in Europe. We are talking about a very diverse resource all over the country. We have approximately 28 species of freshwater fish. The reason I say "approximately" is that it depends who is counting and whether invasive species are included. As recently as two years ago a chub was identified in the River Inny which is a new species to Ireland and was introduced nefariously. If the angling species are included, we have more than 50 species of fish.
We have seven regional fisheries boards. Working clockwise around the country we have the Eastern Regional Fisheries Board, covering the area down as far as Arklow; the Southern Regional Fisheries Board, continuing as far as Youghal; the South-West Regional Fisheries Board, taking in Cork and Kerry; the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, covering the entire Shannon catchment; the Western Regional Fisheries Board, taking in the tip of Clare, all of Galway and the bottom part of Mayo; the North-Western Regional Fisheries Board, taking in the rest of Mayo and Sligo; and the Northern Regional Fisheries Board, taking in Donegal and Cavan. For members' convenience, on that diagram I have overlaid the outline of the river basin districts, which were established to deal with the water framework directive. Members can see the shape of the regional fisheries board areas and the shape of the river basin districts to get a sense of where the overlaps occur.
The fisheries service is noted for the hard edge — protection and enforcement. I will give members a sense of what we are doing on protection and surveillance. My presentation shows the number of nets seized. Last year, it was 25,000 yd. of net and the previous year it was 29,000 yd. We initiated 157 prosecutions versus 104. The figures are broadly comparable year on year. Prosecutions can be for offences such as not returning logbooks, fisheries-related poaching offences, water pollution offences, etc. On the environmental side of fisheries work, we carry out pollution control. The reported fish kills reduced dramatically in 2007. However, the number of pollution-related warning letters issued and the prosecutions initiated increased. That will give a sense of the hard edge of the fisheries service, the enforcement and protection side.
There is another edge to the fisheries service that I want to bring to members' attention, which is the education and social responsibility role. I will outline a small example. The Eastern Regional Fisheries Board has established the Dublin angling initiative in order to get children from underprivileged backgrounds involved in fishing rather than being involved in anti-social behaviour. The Dublin angling initiative has established fishing clubs. It runs fishing courses, holds workshops and organises competitions. It has replenished fish stocks on lakes. I understand that it has introduced fish to Darndale pond. It has given fishing tackle to young people and organised fly-tying workshops. The initiative is trying to raise public awareness of its role through the media. Its work is based on the principle that those who are involved in fishing and have an awareness of their environment are less likely to throw shopping trolleys into canals and lakes and less likely to get involved in other types of anti-social behaviour. There are two significant photographs in the documentation on which this presentation is based. The first photograph depicts a man catching his first fish and the second photograph shows what happens when one does not hold one's fish correctly.
I would like to comment on the role of the Central Fisheries Board. The organogram in my presentation outlines the shape of the organisation. I do not have time to give a full profile of every action of each division, although I would like to do so. I will give the committee a snapshot of the key programmes in which each division is involved. The four key programmes associated with the board's research and development division involve giving advice, assessing fish stocks, implementing EU directives and dealing with the environment and biodiversity programme.
When our colleagues in the Department ask us for advice on salmon management, we provide it to them. We are sometimes asked for advice by our colleagues who are involved with regional boards, external agencies and fishing clubs. It is incredibly difficult to estimate the amount of time and energy the board spends giving advice. I cannot say whether the next six pieces of advice to be given by the board will be given by the end of the week or the end of the year. We might not have to give any advice for the next month. Advice is very important.
As part of its fish stock assessment role, the board undertakes netting programmes on a year-to-year basis. Our information on Lough Sheelin in County Cavan constitutes the longest continuous sequence of netting data of any lake in Europe, as far as we are aware. We have over 30 years of data on the lake's fish populations and communities. We are engaged in a continuous programme of fish stock assessment. The fish stock assessment section of the board is also charged with examining emergency events. When problems arose last month on the River Smearlagh, which flows into the River Feale, our scientists were at the scene the following Monday morning to conduct electric fishing surveys. We had surveyed the river in the preceding years, but we surveyed it once more in the aftermath of the bogslide.
The Central Fisheries Board is currently dealing with two main EU directives. It is responsible for sampling fish under the water framework directive. Its teams are involved in a nationwide fish monitoring programme, in line with the directive. The board is also working closely with the Department on the implementation of the habitats directive.
Under the environment and biodiversity programme, the board deals with issues relating to canals, coarse fisheries and invasive species. The board's laboratories are managed under the programme.
I would like to give the committee a sense of what the board does by referring to a case study that was undertaken under the fish stock assessment programme. Eel stocks have declined catastrophically in Ireland and across Europe over recent years. An EU directive requires member states to produce eel management plans to help the recovery of eel stocks. I am sorry to be showing the committee so many graphs. The red line on the graph on the bottom left of the screen which is visible to members depicts eel stocks in 1980. Eel stocks have been declining since then. The rate of decline has increased over recent years. The EU has asked all member states to produce a national eel management plan. It has set member states a target of ensuring that 40% of silver eels — eels at the life cycle stage at which they travel to the Sargasso Sea — can escape in such a manner. We were not sure how best to achieve that target, given that we had so little information on Irish eel stocks. As part of a project funded under the national development plan, our scientists have been working with the Marine Institute and the ESB, using habitat-based modelling, to assess what historic eel populations might have been. That has allowed us to calculate the escapement rate. The board's fish stock assessment section works on projects of that nature.
The key programmes with which the board's angling and marketing division is involved pertain to the national and international promotion and marketing of angling. Our public relations and communications personnel tell people the good and bad news stories which relate to the things we are doing. They often have to counter the misinformation that exists among the public. Last week, RTE's "The Afternoon Show" featured a lovely recipe for silver bream, even though the board has put a by-law in place to protect the species. We have to ensure that the right information is transmitted.
The updates published on the board's website represent a key aspect of its efforts to provide information on angling. We provide angling information to industry service providers, such as tour operators and angling clubs. If Pierre from France or Günther from Germany makes an inquiry on the board's website about fishing in Ireland, we can provide angling information. As this division of the board has an education and public awareness role, it is responsible for the "Something Fishy" programme.
I referred to social responsibility and the Dublin angling initiative. The "Something Fishy" programme is about educating younger people. It has been widely recognised that while enforcement achieves a certain amount, education and focusing on children is much more cost efficient. For this reason, we introduced the "Something Fishy" programme.
On the promotion and marketing programme, we run the angling tourism marketing strategy with Fáilte Ireland and the regional fisheries boards. We have a suite of headline brochures for different species. When a French or German angler indicates he wishes to fish for pike, he is given the brochure on pike. The central and regional fisheries boards produced a vast amount of information for these brochures, which are being branded under Discovery Ireland. This is the headline material. The angler who wants to fish for pike may decide he wants to fish in the River Shannon. We are in the process of producing a further suite of regional specific brochures which gives precise details, for example, on the River Shannon, which would allow anglers to find a bed and breakfast and so on. These brochures are being distributed at the international shows by our colleagues in Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland. We are also translating some of them into French and will translate relevant brochures for relevant markets, for example, Germany and the Netherlands. I hope this gives members an idea of what the international marketing programme entails.
In the field service division the key programmes are strategic business planning and governance and funding. It also includes the protection and marine advisory service and salmon management service. Every salmon tag and licence in the country comes through our office, which holds the Bradán database for compiling this information. The field service division also encompasses State fisheries management.
The protection and marine advisory service has two large patrol vessels, An Cosantóir Bradán and An Bradán Beatha, both of which are currently in service around the west and south-west coasts. While one vessel is operated by the Central Fisheries Board, the second is leased to the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority in an example of resource sharing. All aspects of the operations of the vessels come through the office under the protection and marine advisory service.
The Central Fisheries Board also liaises with the Air Corps and Naval Service to run protection and pollution patrols. These are co-ordinated and managed through the office. The board also provides advice on protection legislation. The information we obtain in the field is used for policy formulation and forwarded to our colleagues in the Department. This allows us to formulate the necessary by-laws, statutory instruments and similar measures.
We have an advisory service on rigid inflatable boats, RIBs, and all things marine, whether boats, RIBs or trailers. Two years ago the board was fortunate to secure funding to purchase replacement RIBs, which we procured centrally. We also co-ordinate intelligence and act as an intelligence hub, receiving and circulating intelligence. I hope I have given members a sense of one of the programmes operating in the field service division.
As I indicated, the finance and ICT division is focused inwards on running the Central Fisheries Board's business. However, much of its time and energy are focused outwards on co-ordinating with the regional fisheries boards. Budget submissions, service level agreement requests and various other statutory obligations are co-ordinated by the finance division. The main programmes in this division involve the production of financial accounts and financial governance. The division produces management accounts for the Central Fisheries Board to identify how the organisation is faring. ICT, the computers and technology side, and facilities management are the other headline programmes in this division.
Compliance with statutory obligations comes under the area of financial accounting and governance. The most important of these obligations is the submission to the Comptroller and Auditor General of financial accounts. The delivery of effective management services to the Central Fisheries Board involves the division keeping the organisation in line by ensuring it spends the right amounts in the right areas in the right way. This is the case in all businesses.
A number of internal audits have been carried out and others are being scheduled. One will be carried out this year with a second possibly taking place early next year. The purpose of these measures is to keep us in line with best practice in industry. Essentially, it is about hopping the ball. The internal audit is the best way to ensure we are doing the best we can. We provide comprehensive financial, ICT and value for money programmes for the central and regional fisheries boards and financial support services to divisions.
There are, therefore, two areas of work for the finance division. The first is to keep the board on track in terms of incoming and outgoing moneys, while the second is to provide advice on procurement, tendering and costing projects.
Although the human resources division does some work for the Central Fisheries Board, its main focus is on the regional fisheries boards. Overall, the service employs more than 400 people which creates considerable work for the division. The day-to-day operations with 400 people involve many human resources minutiae but which are nonetheless important. There are also human resources development, a training programme and the Health and Safety Executive which plays an important function in keeping the boards apprised of forthcoming legislation that may affect them. One example is how we co-ordinated national disability audits for all the boards as required under the Disability Act.
In human resources development, a management development programme has been established. The Central Fisheries Board is 28 years old and many of the staff have been with it from the start. Many have grown up with the organisation but have never received formal management training. To this end, several years ago we initiated the middle management development course which is in its third year and has been very successful. It provides middle managers with the formal training they may never have received and gives them a lift to the next level.
In conjunction with the Institute of Technology, Sligo, a certificate in fisheries management course is available. It is in its fourth year and 41 students have undertaken it. The fisheries service has received many employees from other agencies but who had received no formal training in the fisheries science or management sector. The certificate, taught in conjunction with the Institute of Technolcogy, Sligo, is about giving these staff some formal training. It has been running so well that we are seeking to upgrade it to a degree programme next year. This year there will be direct entrants from the CAO.
Competency development is about building capacity. Some people have different strengths and weaknesses. We are trying to capitalise on our strengths. I use the phrase "train the trainer". The Shannon Regional Fisheries Board, for example, had several staff members who were very good at boat handling. They were trained to coxwain-level 2 boathandler standard and are now training other fisheries boards' staff, building on existing skills.
We have several partnership groups. This makes sense when dealing with industrial relations issues. Senior management can be very isolated, believing it is making wonderful decisions at the top when often the staff at the coalface know better as to what will and will not work. The partnership process is about seeking everyone's opinion. It is not about senior management dictating downwards but bringing proposals upwards. Delivery of targets under the 2016 agreement has been achieved through partnership groups.
Regarding operational skills development, areas in which fisheries biologists and technicians need training such as electro-fishing and powerboat handling, is provided for by the Central Fisheries Board.
