Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 March 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Inland Fisheries Ireland: Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Does the Minister not think it should be separate? There was a missed opportunity when the review of the National Parks and Wildlife Service took place. There should have been an element of fisheries conservation incorporated into that review. The reality is that if someone rings up IFI and says they think there is an issue in a river, unless there are fish floating on the surface, IFI will not go and investigate the matter. IFI has to see dead fish and it does not take the habitat into account in its work because that is its remit. I wonder about the pressures that are facing our inland fisheries. IFI should have an angling component and there should be a promotion of tourism and all of that but I wonder whether it is right to have those two functions in the same entity and whether that sort of conflict is underpinning this whole problem.

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