Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I wish Mr. Gorman well. His credentials speak for themselves and I have no doubt he will make an excellent chairman of Inland Fisheries Ireland.

I have a number of questions, but I am sure the chairman designate has been briefed by the CEO, Dr. Byrne, in regard to some of the concerns I raised previously with IFI. I welcome the chairman designate's assertion that the levels of employment within the organisation are unsustainably low. I know from meeting employees in the Limerick region recently that they are concerned about this, particularly in regard to part-time staff who are taken on for six months and then laid off for six months. These staff do an excellent job and I would like to see some progress made on this issue and welcome Mr. Gorman's comment on it.

I know a change has been suggested in regard to fish counts and how data will be published and it is expected the 2015 data will not now be made available until April 2016. This creates a bit of a problem for people concerned about stocking levels in rivers. Mr. Gorman made a passionate assertion in regard to stocking levels and mentioned that in order to have a viable angling industry, we needed to have fish. I have cited a case umpteen times to the IFI. I have no axe to grind in this regard. I am not an angler and know nothing about how to catch fish. All I know is how to eat them and I find them good. However, if we look at the statistics in regard to a river I am au fait with, the River Feale, which rises in County Cork, forms a boundary between Limerick and Kerry and flows into the sea at Ballybunion, it is obvious the IFI has information available indicating stocking levels are on a downward trajectory.

I know the response Mr. Gorman will give me on this - that there is a healthy level of fish within the River Feale. However, let us look at the River Feale and at other rivers across the country. In Mr. Gorman's area we have the River Moy. Intervention has brought that river to the state it is in today where it is making a massive contribution to the local economy. It cost significant money to make that intervention, but it was worthwhile paying it and it has paid a dividend to the local economy. I was in the Chairman's part of the country over the summer and every second town and village had a fishing tackle shop, demonstrating the contribution the industry is making in the west of Ireland. There is no reason the industry cannot make that kind of contribution in other parts of the country, but we need somebody to speak out honestly in regard to what is happening with our rivers.

At a time when there were no sewage treatment works, no regulations on agricultural effluent and lime used as fertiliser all over the country, we had more fish in the River Feale than we have now. Perhaps Mr. Gorman can explain this to me. I do not want to hear about El Niño, changes in the north Atlantic drift, weather patterns or what is happening off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland or any of that. I just want to know why, when Limerick, Kerry and Cork county councils are making improvements to sewage treatment works, when farmers operate under strict restrictions in terms of protecting rivers, when anglers are taking massive hits in regard to what they can catch and are very conscious of their role as custodians of the rivers, fish numbers are reducing. Perhaps Mr. Gorman can cast some light on that.

In response to Deputy Harrington, Mr. Gorman mentioned flooding. When the village of Athea in County Limerick, which is on the River Gale, a tributary of the River Feale, flooded in 2008, Limerick County Council arrived in to remove what can only be described as industrial-type debris from under the bridge, which had been blocked for years because the channel is not maintained by anybody. The OPW does not maintain it because it is not an OPW channel. The fisheries people arrived then and wanted the debris returned to the river.

That is the kind of public relations farce - fiasco - that occurs when it comes to people's property being flooded. In the hierarchy of things, river gravel is treated as being more important.

What is the IFI going to do about inland fisheries? Does Mr. Gorman think it is the responsibility of the wrong Department? Does he think responsibility for the marine lies with the wrong Department? I know nothing about how to catch fish but one Department deals with salmon in the Atlantic, while another deals with what happens in the mouth of the River Shannon. One Government agency deals with the same fish in the Atlantic, while another deals with those around Mount Collins. It is absolutely bizarre to have two competing Departments with two totally different agendas and two competing Government agencies with two totally different agendas. Throw in the local authorities on top of this, as well as Irish Water, the National Parks and Wildlife Service, the Office of Public Works and local representatives with their own axe to grind.