Mr. Paul Kavanagh:

Yes, I acknowledge them. They are called eels. I was asked a question by a scientist in Wales this morning and I told him that the eels were being eaten by otters. We have three otters on the weir. They are also being eaten by birds of prey, cormorants, which should be taken out. They are taken out in the UK. It is the otters and cormorants that are making sure that the eels do not get up river, not the weir. We have plenty of shad and lamprey upriver. We have an abundance of it and we have a surplus of 7,200 salmon upriver this year. This has been confirmed. Everything is rosy in the garden. We just need to repair the weir. Cork County Council needs to come before this committee. If we did not have this petition route, we would have no power. This would be done and dusted and the issue would be dead. We have been fobbed off at every single opportunity. We were delighted when the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, came to Fermoy but the minute he left the room, we were left with an IFI official, a civil servant speaking to other civil servants, who said that he did not blame them because they had to go home at 5 o'clock every evening. I rest my case.