Michael Ahern (Cork East, Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Browne, regrets he cannot be in the House to deal with this matter. I believe he is meeting fishermen.

It is the Government's strongly held view that our wild salmon stock is a national asset which must be conserved and protected, as well as being exploited as a resource by us all on a sustainable basis. If we do not take action now, the relentless decline in stocks will continue, leading to the inevitable demise of the wild salmon we value as a cultural, recreational and economic resource. International best practice for the management of North Atlantic salmon requires the adoption of the precautionary approach and the cessation of indiscriminate mixed stock fisheries. As Members are aware, the Government's primary motivation in its decision to align future management of the wild salmon fishery with the scientific advice and introduce the appropriate regulations to cease mixed stock fishing is the conservation of the wild salmon species, which has long been regarded as one of Ireland's most prized fish. It is vital to afford every protection to the remaining salmon stocks and to clearly prioritise conservation over catch. The current imperative is to maintain stocks above conservation limits or, at the very least, halt the observed decline.

In future, the wild salmon fishery will be managed on the basis of individual river stocks. Harvesting of salmon will be restricted to rivers which have been identified as meeting their conservation limit in compliance with Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the conservation of natural habitats and wild flora and fauna, the habitats directive.

The hardship fund adopted by the Government is aimed at alleviating hardship related to loss of income derived from salmon harvesting in recent years caused by the cessation of mixed stock fishing in the interest of conservation. The approach adopted to determining the hardship payments is based on the recommendations of an independent group which the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, appointed to examine the implications of alignment with the scientific advice for the commercial salmon fishing sector in 2007 and beyond. In its report, the group noted that the level of hardship likely to be experienced would vary both in extent and scale. Taking all factors into account and noting in particular there is no legal obligation on the State to provide compensation in a situation where it is imposing management measures that are fundamentally in the public good, it proposed to provide a measure of relief to each individual in line with the level of hardship likely to be experienced and recommended that relief should be based on the recent catch history of the individual licence holder from 2001 to 2005.

The Government accepted the recommendation of the independent group and has determined that the level of payment should be based on the average net income per salmon in the commercial fishery for the five years from 2001 to 2005. This income calculation was based by the group on the average price obtained per fish each year less the costs incurred by fishermen. Each individual licence holder who applies to the fund is set to receive six times his or her average catch multiplied by the average net income per salmon. An additional payment equal to six times the current licence fee will be made in all cases. The Minister of State and the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, believe this is a fair and reasonable allocation based on a robust and convincing assessment by the group.

The terms are applied to driftnet fishermen in the Waterford estuary in the same way as to all other driftnet fishermen. In future, the harvest of salmon by any means will be restricted to those stocks of rivers which meet their conservation limits. This means there will be no indiscriminate capture of fish. Commercial fishing and recreational angling can continue only on the scientifically identified exploitable surplus.

The standing scientific committee of the National Salmon Management Commission has advised that stocks of salmon in the rivers Barrow, Nore and Suir are below conservation limits. For this reason, no killing of salmon by any method in the River Barrow is permitted during the 2007 season. Angling on a catch-and-release basis only is permitted on the waters of the Nore and Suir. This reflects the relative status of the stocks of the rivers. The regional fisheries boards and the Marine Institute will monitor the stocks in developing a management plan for each of the rivers with a view to identifying the extent of the recovery, if any, arising from the cessation of the mixed stock commercial fishery and any stock rehabilitation works undertaken. The application of the by-laws will be kept under constant review. In the event that stocks recover in the rivers of the Waterford Estuary in the future, it should be possible to exploit the identified surplus within the constraints permitted by the habitats directive as transposed by the European Communities (National Habitats) Regulations 1997, SI 94 of 1997.

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