I have no objection to this section but I would like it to go on the record of the House that subsection (3) of section 2 provides:
Any reference to summary conviction in section 35 or section 49 of the Principal Act shall be construed as including a reference to conviction on indictment.
Section 35, as I understand it, deals with buying, selling, exposing for sale or having possession of salmon or trout unlawfully captured. In this section we are extending that to include the possibility of conviction on indictment, and later on under the next section the scale of penalties is laid down. I should like to ask the Minister whether he is satisfied that the penalties for buying or exposing these fish for sale — not being involved in actually procuring them — merits the possibility of a £2,000 fine and/or two years in prison. If it does, it represents a considerable change in the attitude of the people of Ireland to such a matter. I have no objection to it, as I am not going to buy or sell any of these fish. The average man in the street — and we must pass legislation which is in some way relevant to him — would only laugh at you if you told him that the possibility of imprisonment for two years would arise in respect of a conviction on indictment as a result of the buying of an illegally caught salmon or trout.
There is no point in having legislation unless it is to be implemented and unless there is an intention to implement it. The previous penalty in this regard involved a minor fine of £25, and some additional fine in respect of each additional salmon or trout. There was no question of imprisonment, not to mind a question of indictment. To pass legislation which will not be implemented only brings the legislation into disrepute. I doubt that this will ever be implemented, and that is what is worrying me.
Of course, I recognise what the Minister says. I took careful note of his Second Stage speech and what he said about this being the last place in western Europe with a potential for a large scale salmon industry. It is very important for us to preserve it. Do we have the determination to do this? Or are we merely putting something on the Statute Book which we have no intention of prosecuting, no intention of ever implementing on indictment, and no intention of indicating to the judiciary that they should impose two years' imprisonment for this offence? If you told the plain people of Ireland that there was a potential for them to spend two years in jail for having bought a salmon which was caught illegally they would not believe you. Public opinion may not yet have been educated to such an extent that it would make this a rational or reasonable step. I understand it may be in the Fisheries Act, 1980, but I was not here in 1980 and I am not responsible for that.
