Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to raise this matter of enormous importance. We face the extinction of wild salmon on many of our most important rivers. The Minister has set himself against the possible buy-out of offshore indiscriminate drift nets, a policy that goes against all scientific advice that I have seen. While Ireland is unique in the north Atlantic in allowing such indiscriminate fisheries, the Minister puts out ridiculously inflated buy-out costs and said he stands against it. In response to a question from me on 8 February, he said the Government's current strategy is to develop a sustainable commercial and recreational salmon fishery sector through aligning catches on the best available scientific advice. That forms the basis of my question because the best scientific advice was clearly set out in a report by the standing scientific committee to the National Salmon Commission, presented earlier this year, which shows the crisis as regards wild salmon in our rivers, not just on the rivers one might expect, the Liffey, Boyne, Suir and Nore, the east coast rivers, but also the Shannon, the Corrib and in Sligo where some of our previously healthiest rivers are in a state of crisis.

The scientific advice clearly indicates that there is no surplus, that we are below the conservation limits and should not allow any catch, if at all possible, in such rivers. The scientists, Dr. Paddy Gargan of the Central Fisheries Board, and Dr. Niall Ó Maoiléidigh of the Marine Institute, recommended a national commercial catch of 90,000 fish and another 27,000 to be caught by rod, to give a total of 122,300 fish. That, everyone believed, was the figure the National Salmon Commission would approve this year. For some reason, at the recent meeting of the National Salmon Commission, the Central Fisheries Board and the other boards proposed a higher figure of 137,000 for the commercial catch plus a rod catch of 30,000, to give a total of 167,000 fish. That is inexplicable. It is impossible to understand. I can only assume that political direction was given to the fisheries boards to get them to increase the recommended quotas, because there is no justification for not accepting not only the advice of our own scientists, but that of ICES, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, that we should stick to a 75% probability of meeting conservation limits.

It seems that the National Salmon Commission, by a majority vote, was completely against such a proposal and is recommending this much higher quota, which I believe further increases the possibility of wild salmon extinction on rivers such as the Liffey, the Boyne, the Corrib, the Shannon etc. I believe this is one of the greatest scandals currently evolving in this country. I want to know how the Minister will decide on this issue when he sets the quota, which he has yet to do. He has a recommendation from the salmon commission, but he does not necessarily have to follow it. I urge him to follow the scientific advice and to stick with the recommended catch level of 122,000. If he fails to do that, it makes a mockery of Government policy and a nonsense of his statement in the House a month ago that policy is to align catches on the best available scientific advice. That advice is patently and perfectly clear. The Minister will ignore it at his peril because there will be uproar from anglers, conservationists and people who do not want wild salmon to become extinct, which current Government policy ensures will happen rapidly.

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