Mr. Paul Kavanagh:

Bearing in mind the Acting Chairman's comments, I will provide some quotes from various IFI and departmental officials. The most recent reads, "The best thing that could happen is that the Weir be swept away ... We want to take away every weir in the country ... The bulldozers are ready to move in". A quote from last week reads, "We were never asked, nor did we ever stop a repair". IFI is creating a smoke-screen for the Minister. Fish stocks have been depleted by overfishing at sea against scientific advice. This is further supported by a recent article in The Independent in the UK, which stated that wild salmon figures were way down in Scotland, blaming fish farming, drift netting and overfishing at sea as the main causes for river depletion. On 30 April, The Irish Timesreported IFI's CEO, Dr. Ciaran Byrne, as saying that the same factors were affecting populations in Ireland – mortality at sea, climate change including rising water temperatures, and sea lice arising from fish farming.

Dr. Byrne acknowledges that marine mortalities have reached 96%. For every 100 salmon smolts leaving Irish rivers, up to 30 used to return to spawn. In recent years that figure was "just three or four" and "this is at crisis point". Official figures in Ireland for the River Blackwater put draft net fishing on average at 1,500 per annum, whereas unofficial figures are estimated at being significantly higher than this. The claim that the weir should be removed because it has prevented salmon from migrating upriver can be totally discredited by the fact that the "official surplus for the Blackwater in 2018-19 is in excess of 7,200 fish, which is back up at 2008 levels".

We understand the proposal of a new fish bypass channel is being discussed and planned by the IFI and Cork County Council. We, the stakeholders, have yet to see plans of this channel despite several requests and as a result, we have no idea of what is planned or what its effects will be on future water levels upriver. We feel this new channel is unnecessary and is a waste of taxpayers' money. After all of the above evidence, why is a weir that has functioned efficiently for over 200 years, all of a sudden, causing concern? We say "Just repair it".

What is required as of now is that a repair of the weir needs to be carried out immediately without any further delay. Stone cages or a water-filled boom, which is a water-balloon sausage, should be installed upriver from the bridge to restrict water flow through to the breach. This could cost in the region of €40,000 and will allow our clubs operate with some bit of normality next month. It will also allow free passage of salmon, shad, eel and lamprey. The disappearance of, and damage done to, the weir at O’Neill Crowley Quay was, we believe, caused by Lagan Construction on behalf of the OPW. Both of these bodies need to be compelled to repair and rebuild the weir. Surely, they would have had an insurance bond for damage caused to the 200-year old protected weir after their works. We suggest this be investigated immediately.

IFI is responsible for the free unhampered passage of migrating fish and it is their responsibility to ensure Cork County Council address the fish pass problems. The damage to the Mill Race Weir wall and the damage to the fish passes, while two separate issues, need to be resolved simultaneously as part of a holistic repair of a 200 year old listed protected structure. Nobody is confirming anything to us - it is all hearsay and rumour. We are not politicians or civil servants but volunteers who are worn down from all the runaround we are getting from the various authorities. The committee must petition Cork County Council and IFI to come before it.