Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

I am absolutely sure. We have legal obligations under both national and EU law, including the habitats directive. There is absolutely no obligation on the Government to provide any form of payment but we did not believe that providing none would be fair. We asked an independent group to make a recommendation to us. It did so and we accepted the recommendation on the basis on which it made it. I had it sanctioned by the Cabinet.

There is some difficulty over the five year period. We were trying to be generous in this regard. The reason some would have done less well in respect of this period is because there are fewer salmon. If we wait for another two or three years, there will be even fewer. The normal applicable period in such cases would encompass the last three years and the application of this period would be even more severe on all concerned. All in all, we have tried to balance the difficulties the period creates for the individuals and communities concerned with the other relevant factors and to alleviate as much hardship as possible.

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