Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will give the Deputy an update on the status of the stocks, particularly salmon stocks. They seemed to be relatively steady, if not showing a slight improvement, in the last five years. The number of rivers open to catching where there is a total allowable catch set and conservation limits went from 44 to 48 between 2017 and 2021. The number on catch and release has gone from 27 to 32 and the number closed has gone from 72 down to 64. That is a slight improvement but still we would not be complacent. Anyone with a close interest in angling will say that the numbers are a fraction of what they would historically have been. Some rivers, such as the Moy, are still remarkable. I think the total allowable catch there is something like 12,000 fish. The next river down from that would be something like 4,000, which is a fraction of it. I am thinking of the likes of the Blackwater or the Maine down in Kerry. It varies across the country. There is the Laune in Tralee. They would be some of the larger rivers.

We have a complex system because there is both the spring run and the autumn run. A lot depends on local conditions as well as the wider context, as I mentioned earlier, of what is happening in the feeding grounds out in the Atlantic. Some 7,000 fish would be caught with commercial licences each year. That is still very valuable. In shops the price of wild salmon is astronomical because it is such a precious and rare commodity. The number of licences is relatively small. Commercial fisheries are limited just to salmon. We do not do any eel.

On the range of licences in terms of costs, a draft net licence is €385 and there were 58 sales of them last year. Snap net licences, a slightly different netting type, sell as ten at a duty of €152. We are looking at about a 10% increase. It is not a huge revenue accruing to the State. Most of the revenue comes from the rod licences for anglers, tourists and others, including short-term daily licences. The commercial licence income and numbers are very small. For some people it is still a very significant business because those 7,000 fish are not insignificant in numbers but the licence fee revenue is a fraction of what it would be from the commercial fisheries compared to the rod licences.