Mr. Éamon Ó Corcora:

Maidir le cheist a chuir Teachta Ó Cuív, is dócha an sean stil é mar a dearfá. Deputy Ó Cuív asked if everybody else was to go one way and the island of Ireland was to go another. I have been involved in fishing for 36 years and I fish for oysters in winter and early spring in Tralee Bay and it is the best example of a managed fishery in Ireland. It is also the best example of native wild oysters. It is coming under pressure from two different sources, namely, discharges and no compensation to the daoine bochta who have to try to make a living out of it. There has also been a question over the last few years about the Birds Directive and the Habitats Directive which have slightly affected things also. These studies have to be carried out, which is one thing, but I note the following on water quality. Kerry County Council asked a former Minister to ban drift-netting for salmon as it was damaging tourism, but at the same time in 2006, not one of their waste water systems met with European environmental standards. Today, almost ten years later, up to 50% of them still do not.

Salmon ranching may have been something like what was happening on the River Shannon, more so than with the cages there. It was wild salmon and it was the ESB. The salmon ranching in County Mayo is very good and I have no problem with it. Lobster hatcheries for crayfish, lobsters and shrimp are to help sustainability as one can only take so much out. It is like a farmer having 100 sheep on a mountain. If one keeps selling off one's lambs every year, in ten years one will have nothing. In the same way, one has to have a breeding stock. The system we have at the moment is not working. We are 30 years behind the UK and others where we should be 30 years ahead.