Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Anyone who has been to places such as the Gascanane Sound in west Cork will know there are hundreds, if not more, seals, in other places. I get mixed reports on seals and their impact on wild fisheries. Bord Iascaigh Mhara is assessing that, but we are not in a position to decide on seal culls without a lot of science to back it up. That would be a very unpopular thing to do among the broader public, even though I am sure some fishermen would support it. Before we could even consider it, we would need very sound science and data. That will primarily be a decision for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, NPWS.

We do not have grant aid for boats in the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, EMFF. That ended in 2003. We will be able to spend money on upgrading certain equipment on boats that improves the quality of fish, safety and the quality of the work environment on boats. I do not think there will be a fleet renewal fund coming through the fisheries fund because the Commission would vehemently oppose that. It is concerned that there is already far too much capacity in fleets across member states, relative to the available stocks. First, we need to rebuild stocks and then move to increasing catch capacity by making the investments. There is a provision to take some boats out of the system in the new EMFF. Once we know how much money we have to spend, the industry needs to sit down with all the representative bodies, POs and fora to work out how to get the maximum value for the Irish seafood and fishing industry from the available funds. I hope there will be a significant increase on what was available for the past seven years, and although the overall fund is down by 10%, I think Ireland’s share of it will dramatically increase. That may be a bullish prediction but I would be very disappointed if that was not the case.

On the local authority audits, we have only €3 million to spend this year, a relatively small sum, for approximately 70 different projects across local authorities around the coastline. If we have only that much to spend, we want to see bricks and mortar improving infrastructure as opposed to people spending a fortune on consultants. If we had a lot more money to spend, which hopefully we will soon, we would spend it on more than fixing and building new facilities. For the moment, I want to concentrate it on activity and improving water access infrastructure for the fishing industry and for marine leisure.

My views on fluoride should be reasonably well known. We need to reconsider our fluoride policy. I have made my views known in Cabinet.

The Minister for Health, Deputy Reilly, has committed to setting up an international panel to examine the appropriateness of Irish fluoride policy. There are many in his Department who would defend that policy very strongly as a good public health policy while others question it. We need an independent assessment and recommendations on which we can act. It is relevant to say that the water used in most agricultural activity does not have added fluoride because it comes from wells on the land. Fluoride is only added, by and large, to the public water supply available to urban populations. That was a decision taken for good dental health reasons many years ago. I do not think politicians should be making decisions here without the science to back them up. However, I agree that the majority of countries in the developed world have moved away from the policy of adding fluoride to water, the exceptions being New Zealand, Australia and parts of the United States, which continue to add fluoride to drinking water, and they maintain that it is the right policy. This is not a black and white issue but there is a commitment by the Government to have an independent group of credible people to look at the policy and to make recommendations on which we will act.