I move:
That Seanad Éireann approves the following Order in draft:
Salmon, Eel and Oyster Fishing Licences (Alteration of Licence Duties) Order, 1984.
a copy of which Order in draft was laid before Seanad Éireann on the 3rd day of December, 1984.
Salmon, Eel and Oyster Fishing Licences (Alteration of Licence Duties) Order, 1984: Motion.
The Fisheries (Consolidation) Act 1959, as amended, empowers the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry from time to time by order to alter salmon, eel and oyster fishing licence duties. Whenever the Minister is proposing to make such an order he must lay a draft of the order before Seanad Éireann and Dáil Éireann and he cannot make the order until a resolution approving of the draft order has been passed by Seanad Éireann and by Dáil Éireann.
The Minister for Fisheries and Forestry is satisfied in the light of the rate of inflation that salmon, eel and oyster fishing licences should be increased to take effect from 1 January 1985. While the rate of inflation since these fishing licence duties were last increased on 1 January 1983 would justify an increase of 20 per cent, the Minister is restricting the increase to 15 per cent in view of the reduced level of catches of salmon this year.
In the event of the resolutions being passed by both Houses of the Oireachtas, the implementation of the order will have the effect of increasing the estimated revenue from licence fees to £320,000 approximately in 1985, which would be an increase of about £40,000 over the 1984 figure. I am aware that the commercial fishermen and some of the anglers will be unhappy at having to pay more for their licences in 1985. I desire to point out to them, however, that the Exchequer is providing £1.1 million in 1985 towards the non-pay element of expenditure by the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards which is an increase of 46 per cent over the 1984 figure. In addition, the Exchequer is providing £3.3 million in 1985 towards the cost of salaries and wages for Central and Regional Fisheries Boards' staffs.
Accordingly I recommend to the House that this motion be passed approving of the draft order.
We in Fianna Fáil are opposed in principle to this measure to increase duties on salmon, eel and oyster fishing licences, especially on salmon rod fishermen, eel fishermen and net fishermen, because we do not see that the amount which is expected to be brought in will be of any use to fishermen or to the fisheries boards. It was a pity that when the Minister was speaking he did not state his general policy in relation to the whole inland fisheries industry. It is not prudent to impose increases in fishery licences in view of the state of the country in general.
It is generally recognised that salmon inland fisheries are in a seriously declining state and this will result in an extra burden on many licensed anglers which will have the ultimate result of some refusing to take out licences. If there is a fall-off in the number of applications for licences it is inevitable that the Minister will not get the extra £40,000 he expects from the imposition of this measure. Everybody knows that the £40,000 will not go anywhere when it is divided among the fisheries boards throughout the country who are in very severe financial circumstances.
Development work on inland fisheries is at a standstill. This was admitted as late as yesterday by Mr. Breathnach, chief of the Central Fisheries Board, as reported in today's edition of The Irish Times. The Central Fisheries Board's development activities are almost completely at a standstill. The work initiated by the old Inland Fisheries Trust has not been completed because of lack of finance. The regional boards are also financially embarrassed and waterkeepers are unable to control illegal fishing. They are pushed to the limit to try to combat illegal fishing.
Some very crude methods are used in illegal fishing. The use of cyanide should be completely outlawed as it is a very cruel method of illegal fishing. Some illegal operators can reap enormous financial benefits from such an operation.
This new imposition will undermine the confidence of the genuine anglers who are not enjoying very much success at present. This measure will not in any way curtail the activities of the illegal operators who have had such a harmful influence on our fisheries over the past few years. We need direct cash for the central board and the regional boards to help them tackle the widespread illegal activities on our rivers and lakes. Because of lack of finance the regional boards are able to provide only a skeleton staff for fisheries protection and the increasing of the licence fees will not supplement the finances of either the central or regional boards to the extent necessary to combat such illegal fishing. It would be more proper if there were greater supervision of lakes and rivers to detect illegal fishing and impose greater fines for offences. thereby ensuring that our inland fishing would be protected.
Tourism is also very badly hit because of lack of developed inland fisheries. Thousands of anglers could be attracted to fish on our many lakes and rivers which are envied by fishing patrons who have visited this country. It could be of immense benefit to the State and to the immediate community if a small effort were made to develop the inland fishing.
I would like to pay tribute to the angling associations throughout the country for their enormous interest in the inland fishing industry, especially in their efforts to stock and restock our rivers and lakes. In this respect I might be somewhat parochial in complimenting the Deale Anglers Association on the great work they are doing in stocking and restocking the River Deale and its tributaries and also the lakes in its immediate area. I am sure that other angling associations are doing similar work and only for their efforts the inland fisheries would be in dire trouble.
I would appeal therefore to the Minister to recognise the enormous work that these anglers' associations are doing for the development of inland fishing and to find some way of giving them financial assistance at some time.
Pollution is also a very serious hazard in inland fishing and caused 150 kills this year which resulted in losses of many thousands of pounds. While pollution cannot be avoided, especially with the development of industry and agriculture which are vital to our economy, every effort should be made to ensure that pollution of our rivers and lakes is eliminated. The Government could provide some financial assistance by way of grant to encourage and help those whose developments probably cause pollution to install some facilities such as effluent tanks to eliminate the pollution of our lakes and rivers. The Government should play a big part so as not to put undue expense on those people who are causing it because it could put them out of business. The Government should look sympathetically at this issue.
I also understand that there is serious staff dissatisfaction in the Central Fisheries Board. I understand a strike is threatened and I would appreciate if the Minister would inform the House what steps he is taking to ensure that strike action is not taken because it would have serious repercussions for our fishing industry. We are opposed to this measure in principle.
I support the motion. I accept many of the points made by Senator Kiely and I would like to see many of his suggestions implemented when the resources are available. I have spoken from the luxury of the other side of the House and I was as good as Senator Kiely at recommending that this, that and the other thing be done when it did not fall on the shoulders of the side of the House I represented to provide the necessary financial resources to put the measures into effect.
I do not accept that the proposed increase is enormous. The Minister has pointed out in his speech that it is considerably less than the inflation figure would have justified. It would have justified an increase of about 20 per cent. But this increase is 15 per cent, a total of about £40,000.
I want to join in the tribute Senator Kiely paid to the work of the angling associations. Worthwhile progress is being made. I would share his views about the value of fishing to the tourist industry.
It is not quite fair to suggest, as I understood Senator Kiely to suggest, that there is to be little or no Government input for 1985. The Minister has made it clear that £1.1 million on the non-pay element is being allocated and £3.3 million is going towards the cost of wages and salaries of the staff of the central and the regional fisheries boards. There is a contribution of almost £4.5 million at a time of scarce resources. The increase that has been asked for is not major and there should not be any major objection to it.
I have to agree with the sentiments expressed by Senator Kiely. I understand the increases are not very large and that angling clubs and associations would not have any serious objections to them.
The salmon inland fisheries are a cause of concern. I will speak briefly with regard to the position in the Blackwater area in Kells, County Meath, from which I come. Up to 1981 the nets were taken up on Friday night and put back on Monday morning. In 1981 181 salmon were caught with rod and line between Navan and Virginia. In that year there was a very bad kill of fish in the river, including 103 salmon in a two-mile stretch from Kells. Since then the nets are only taken up for one day a week on Saturday and put back on Monday. Only 55 salmon were caught in 1982 in that stretch of river. In 1983 55 salmon were caught and this year only 14 salmon were caught. That paints a gloomy picture. People involved in fishing believe that we should go back to the position which obtained in 1981 because what is happening is that the fish are not getting up the river to spawn and the fishermen are spoiling their own ends.
Poaching is a problem. We have a small loss from local poaching but also gangs, allegedly from the North, are poaching in that area. The bailiffs or water keepers will only be replaced when three of them retire. This is an area where personnel should not be reduced.
In the Lough Sheelin area we had a slurry problem. There was a subsidy for lorries to take away the slurry but it ends this month. All that would be needed next year would be £16,000 to continue the work. It is unfortunate that this is not forthcoming, and it should be looked at again to see if something can be done.
We have the problem in Meath where the drainage work has been completed and the rivers have virtually been converted to canals. I understand the fishing situation is good.
I would like to make one important point in relation to the catching of salmon. The salmon caught with drift nets will be sold for perhaps £2 per pound but a salmon caught with rod and line would be worth at least £600 to the economy, taking into consideration the money spent by tourists locally. This is an important consideration which should be kept in mind.
This morning I attended the briefing on public venture capital for the Oireachtas Members and I was glad to see that the investment decisions include one smoked salmon venture. This will result in increased revenue for the country. It will involve salmon farms. We could build up something like they have in Norway where they export 22,000 tonnes of salmon each year. Our exports are in the region of 250 tonnes but I believe this will shortly go up to 500 tonnes. The salmon which comes from Irish waters is considered to be of very superior quality. We have problems with marketing arrangements and the supply of smolts and I hope these factors will be taken into consideration. I hope that the necessary attention will be paid to the area of coarse fishing.
I add my voice to those of Senators Kiely and Fitzsimons when they say that this is not an appropriate time for an increase in the cost of licences. Going on to what Senator Fitzsimons has said with regard to the fall in the number of salmon being caught by rod and line method, it is obvious that no increase should be sought from fishermen because their chances of catching fish are being greatly reduced.
Coming from the part of the country that I do there is another very serious matter which to me the inland fisheries board should be tackling. That is the problems caused by foreign fishermen who are poaching our coarse fishing rivers and lakes. We know that pike is a delicacy commanding in Germany possibly the same price as salmon, and the net result is that the coarse lakes are being robbed of those fish.
It is a well known fact that German gangs are operating in parts of this country using sonar equipment to seek out the fish in the lakes and to take them out, often by very illegal means. I would hope that the Central Fisheries Board would immediately tackle this problem, even if it means deportation. Deportation should be the penalty for anybody who is found to be poaching in this way from our lakes and rivers. To allow this to continue will erode our angling industry, which has been a major source of income especially in Cavan, Leitrim and Monaghan. That area has built up a traditional angling market with anglers from Great Britain and continental Europe. The true angler will not do any damage at all to fish stocks, but these types of poaching gangs will do serious damage in the long term. I would hope that the inland fisheries boards would immediately set about tackling this problem.
The lack of a definite policy with regard to the development of our coarse fisheries is something that all Governments can be blamed for down the years. I would hope that the Minister of State would ask his Department to come up with a definite policy for the fishing industry. Allowing this type of activity to go on will mean that we will lose one of our great leisure activities, not alone for our tourists but for our own people. It would be sad if we allowed our lakes to become run down in terms of stocks of fish, because no fisherman likes to go out and come home without at least catching something for the day. If it is to be a case of having to buy a red herring on the way home to prove to his wife that he was fishing, it will be a very sad state of affairs.
I hope that the Minister of State will look at that and that he will make available to the inland fisheries boards more money for restocking of our rivers than has been made available down the years. He hopes to provide — I would hope for the provision of stocks in our rivers — £1.1 million in 1985 towards the non-pay element of expenditure by the Central and Regional Fisheries Boards. This is an increase of 46 per cent over 1984, which means that the 1984 figure would be in the region of £½ million. An investment of £½ million is very small when we consider the amount of money that is coming from tourism and licence fees and from the sale of fish caught legally and illegally, since we all know there is a poaching problem in our salmon rivers. The amount of money would need to be increased at least five times so that we could set about bringing up the stock of fish within our rivers and lakes to an acceptable level to allow us to exploit them further as the great waters that they are. They will no longer be a tourist attraction if their stocks are depleted.
I want to contribute briefly to this debate. What brings me to my feet are the remarks of the last speaker, which I fully support. We sometimes forget that our natural resources are our greatest asset, and we tend only to put asset value on something we have to build up physically by our own resources. Our greatest natural resources, particularly in the west, are our fisheries and our natural amenities. I fully support the point of view expressed by Senator Ellis that these amenities are being plundered, not merely by Irish people but very frequently by tourists who come here and are not aware in any way of the basic standards we require of fishermen who are out to enjoy themselves. I have had the experience when fishing on some of the County Mayo lakes of observing non-Irish fishermen using equipment to fish in a very improper manner and having available on the shores refrigerated vehicles to bring the catch away. I am aware that certain people have come from outside to fish in that manner. That is absolutely improper.
The level of increase which this order proposes is very reasonable, bearing in mind the pleasure and enjoyment that increase can give. The Minister will have to look at the role and function of the regional fisheries boards. More funding must be made available to them to employ staff to operate, not in a manner that is seen as negative but in a manner that is seen as positive. We frequently look upon the fisheries boards and their staff as people who are there to restrain poaching by Irish people and to operate in a very negative sense.
I have had very considerable dealings with the fisheries boards, particularly the North Western Regional Fisheries Board, and I must commend them on the work they have undertaken in the area of restocking, preventing pollution and of ensuring that this valuable natural resource is protected. That work cannot be done to its maximum if funding is not made available to allow them to employ the necessary staff to operate in a positive way, to encourage people to use the natural resources in a constructive way and above all to indicate to our tourists and to people who are not aware of how we use these resources how they should be used. I would like to see, particularly on our lakes in County Mayo, resources being made available to the North Western Regional Fisheries Board and to other fisheries boards to allow them retain that type of staff to enable a constructive and positive job be done.
I come from an area in north Meath close to the Cavan border where by tradition the fishing lakes and rivers are the major tourist attraction, together with our ancient monuments at Lough Crew. In this area we have the River Inny and the Blackwater. Lough Sheelin has been regarded for many years as the best trout fishing lake in Europe. We have Lough Ramor and we have a lake on the Meath-Westmeath border over near Fore known as the White Lake, a very renowned fishing lake. We have had many battles over the last number of years, and I must pay special tribute to the inland fisheries board for the part they played in combating pollution, which is a very serious problem. I am happy to say in the case of Lough Sheelin that the problem is certainly abating and fishing is coming back there.
I would be concerned about introducing any measure that would restrict tourism in our area. I rise mainly to bring to the attention of the Minister who would be most appropriate to deal with it the problem that has come to the north Meath area through the viaducts and rivers. Apparently wild mink escaped some years ago. While no great alarm was raised at that time, they have come down through the River Inny in our instance and have invaded chicken farms, egg farms and attacked cattle and in one instance killed a cow. These fierce animals kill the victim, in the case of hens and chickens, by cutting their jugular vein.
In attacking cattle they cut a vein in the cow's or bullock's tail. I wonder how they affect the fish in rivers because their movement is by river. I have full proof and evidence of this where a particular hatchery had its site based on the River Inny. In one night alone one mink killed 60 chickens or laying hens. They are very fierce animals. They are believed to be capable of attacking human beings. If the population of this wild mink increases we will have a very serious problem on our hands.
Would the Senator relate his remarks to the debate?
I have made my point in so far as it relates to the fact that they travel by the water courses; that is how they get to their destination. They are known to and have been seen to kill fish. I wonder what effect they have on our fishing stocks. I would appreciate very much, if the Minister cannot give a reply today, that he would communicate with me in writing and see what can be done to alleviate the situation. I can guarantee to the Members of this House that this is a very serious problem.
I will deal with some of the specifics first. Senator Lynch raised the question of wild mink. Neither I nor my Department have responsibility in respect of wild mink. I understand they are a problem. They are really the problem for the Department of Agriculture. However, the Senator asked a specific question in relation to what effect they are having on stocks. I will ask the Department if there are any reports available and I will communicate with the Senator.
On the question of Lough Sheelin, the Department of the Environment are in the process of finalising a new management committee. This new committee, I understand, is coming into operation on 1 January 1985 and I sincerely hope they make a success of it.
Senator Fitzsimons raised the question of the Blackwater. As the Senator knows, the Blackwater was subject to a very substantial drainage scheme by the Office of Public Works. Very serious damage was done there both to the vegetation and to the banks. As a result of that, it is not inhabited by fish. I am told by my Department officials that it will take about three years for the fish to return to that river. They see no reason why we cannot get up to the same level as we had prior to the drainage scheme being carried out. Meanwhile I agree with what the Senator says; it is a very valuable asset. The question of the restocking of the river is one for the board operating in that area.
A general question was raised by Senator Kiely and other Senators in relation to development. I would like to point out, first of all, that the Department supply about 90 per cent of the money for all fishery boards. The remainder of the money comes from the boards themselves. I would further like to point out that the increase this year is substantial, in view of there being such stringency in relation to finance. The increase of 46 per cent is very substantial. If we segregate this figure I would like to inform people that it is the non-pay element; it is for development work in general. Senator Kiely also made the point that fishermen, as a result of increasing prices, will not take out licences. I have grave doubts about that. The increase is around 15 per cent. Inflation during the same period was 20 per cent. I am satisfied that the fishermen in general will take out licences for 1985 and that extra £40,000 of an increase will be sent to the regional board for development. Most of these increases are taken up by the Department of Finance. It is right that we have fought for and succeeded in getting these increases for regional boards for development work in general. I am satisfied that this will happen.
On the question of the strike which the Senator mentioned, I am hopeful that the Labour Court, the Government agency responsible for dealing with public relations problems in relation to staff, will be successful in this instance. I would ask people to be reasonable in their demands. I certainly do not want any strike on our hands. We had a difficult problem last year. We thought we had it sorted out. However, Senators can be assured that we will be watching and monitoring the situation. We are hopeful that there will be a successful conclusion to the satisfaction of everybody. There is no use in people getting a settlement if they are not satisfied. I would again appeal to people to be reasonable in their demands.
Senator Fitzsimons asked about the value of salmon caught by drift net and the comparison with salmon caught by rod and line. I could not agree with him more. It just indicates the value of the fishing industry in general. While I am not satisfied about the progress being made, nevertheless the progress in relation to the development is reasonable in view of the amount of money available. I would further like to point out that the development work initiated by the former Inland Fisheries Trust is ongoing and there has been no scaling down whatsoever of the work. It is true to say that funds have not been provided for any major extension or development work in the last couple of years. We are awaiting a development plan from the Central Fisheries Board. Certainly, once that development plan comes to my Department it will be dealt with straight away. It would be wrong for us to push money into large developments in the absence of this plan. I am hopeful that this plan will be made available in the very near future.
I want to express very sincere thanks to the Members who contributed and all the points made will be noted.
Question put and agreed to.