Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have two petitions for consideration today. Petition No. P00008/23, stop legal netting of Atlantic salmon in Castlemaine harbour, from Mr. Danial Brosnan. The summary of the petition is that the petitioner advises that the continued legal netting of an endangered species, Atlantic salmon, in a special area of conservation, Castlemaine harbour, where Atlantic salmon are an actual quantifying interest. With salmon returning at an all-time low and with inadequate data being provided by a fish counter on the River Maine, this is an actual environmental crime being sanctioned by the Government. More than 2,000 signatures have been signed in an online petition.

The petitions case manager corresponded with Mr. Brendan Gleeson, Secretary General of Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, on 6 April 2023. A response was received recommending that the secretariat correspond with the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. The petitions case manager corresponded with Mr. Denis Maher, head of the Inland Fisheries division, on 26 April 2023 and received a reply on 26 May 2023. The response was sent to the petitioner for comment within 14 days. The petitioner sent in two responses on 9 and 10 June 2023 where he raised several questions for the head of the Inland Fisheries division to respond to.

On 20 June the secretariat received another correspondence from the petitioner with a letter from Ms Sarah Healy, AIE officer, to the petitioner refusing an access to information on the environment, AIE, request by the petitioner for data from the 2018 fish counter on the River Maine.

The recommendation is that the committee recommends that the questions from the petitioner be forwarded to the head of the Inland Fisheries division of the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications for comment within 14 days. Have members any comments on that?