Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That was a little more coherent.

Salmon cannot be caught in the River Boyne because the numbers are far lower than what we need to make sure the stock will be sustainable. Every single salmon begins life in the river comes back to it. The only way we can make sure there will be salmon into the future - the species is in danger of being overfished - is by conserving stock.

Wild bass was mentioned. It is a fantastic species. Wild bass take a long time - something like 20 years or more - to reach maturity. If they were allowed to be fished commercially, there would be none left in one year. That would destroy and despoil the species, perhaps removing them forever from our environment. It is not true or right to say the Minister, the Government, the European Union and others are out to prevent people from making a decent living. It is quite the opposite. They want to make sure they can make a living, that the industry will be sustainable and continue into the future.

I have only come to this issue in the last week or so. I hear my colleague, Deputy Fitzpatrick, talking about boats from Northern Ireland as if it was some strange place, rather than County Down being adjoined to County Louth. We live on an island and, as I understand it, rights are reciprocated, North and South, something with which I do not have an issue. I do not believe in partition, either on sea or on land. There should be fair and reasonable access to fisheries, North and South, if we want to have an all-island economy. However, there are issues with conservation, including with the razor stock in Dundalk Bay. It is finite and reducing and fishermen are rightly and properly afraid that it will be overfished, including by boats from other counties. They are saying they were not consulted and have raised questions about the Marine Institute being consulted. They have referred me to articles carried in the Marine Times.

I will always support conservation which is in everybody's interests now and into the future. However, policy must be wise and applied fairly. The fishermen in County Louth who spoke to me are concerned that other boats, regardless of from where they come, may have access to a diminishing reserve which just about has the capacity to give them a living. I do not know if that frames the question in a different way, but that is what they are saying to me. I reject the partitionist attitude to fisheries of other Deputies. It is silly. If we conserve what we have and there are reciprocal rights, North and South, that will be good for everybody. Conservation must be the key determinant. If fisheries off the coast of County Louth are under threat because of overfishing, they must be conserved. Local people should be least affected by conservation measures in terms of access.

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