John Perry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fine Gael)

We are all in favour of the conservation of stocks and I am aware that the Minister has appointed a team to carry out an evaluation. However, if one wants to ensure fairness between commercial fishermen and anglers, the number of tags issued by the Department must be controlled. At present, there is no methodology whatsoever to regulate the number of tags sold or to prevent anglers buying multiple tags. In effect, if they so wished, anglers could buy 50 tags and there is nothing to prevent them from doing so. A system should be set up whereby anglers are given a registered number which is stored on a database and available to all tag outlets.

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