Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I represent a great riverine constituency. The Nore, Barrow, Slaney rivers, among others, run through Carlow and Kilkenny. They are breathtaking in their beauty and length and a rich source of folklore. In the Elizabethan era, the poet Edmund Spenser said of the Barrow, "The goodly Barrow on whose bosom great salmon heape".

Ireland has some of the cleanest and most lightly fished freshwaters in Europe. Our landscape is one of small fields and wild peat bogs, littered with loughs of all sizes and drained by many rivers. There are over 7,000 miles of riverbank for the coarse and pike angler. The scale of these waters varies dramatically.

For the past ten years, I have been campaigning to end drift-netting for salmon at sea to protect the species. Thankfully, this is now done. In the area of angling we have catch-and-release which allows sufficient number of salmon to be returned and allows salmon time to regenerate in a post drift-net era. However, we must look to the coarse fish, such as roach, bream, carp, pike and rudd, whose numbers are dwindling rapidly due to exploitation. I accept coarse anglers can catch a limited amount but there is now extensive fishing of coarse species which will lead to a collapse of these stocks.

Current by-laws introduced in recent years by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources impose a bag limit of four coarse fish in any one day and prohibit the killing of any coarse fish greater than 25 cm in length. They also prohibit the sale of any coarse fish in Ireland, excluding Northern Ireland. This provision will not apply to fishing tackle dealers and fish bait suppliers who have been granted an exemption. While these measures are in place, more needs to be done.

Anecdotal evidence from waterway keepers and others suggests large concerns about existing stocks. As one who treasures the biodiversity of our rivers, we must maintain it. The life cycle of flies, dragonflies, midges and water boatmen, a type of water beetle, depend on a delicate ecosystem of which coarse fish are part of the natural chain. These species are in imminent danger of stock collapse.

Will the Minister put in place adequate resources for the support of private waterkeepers? More tangible resources for inland waterways will ensure overfishing and over-exploitation of these stocks can come to an end. Coarse fishing also provides a valuable source of tourism for rural areas. Many fishermen use the Barrow riverbank from Carlow to Muine Beag, from Borris to the tidal waterways at St. Mullin's. Constituents have raised this matter with me and hope the Minister will implement measures to protect coarse fish stocks.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Under the Fisheries Acts, primary responsibility for the management, conservation, protection and development of inland fisheries stocks rests with the central and regional fisheries boards in accordance with the Fisheries Acts 1959 to 2003. I rely on the advice of the boards in determining policy and legislative measure aimed at protecting these stocks.

I am advised by the boards they are aware that, due to changing population dynamics in recent years, some anglers may not have been respecting the practice of returning coarse fish catches live to the waters from which they were caught. Accordingly, localised fish stocks have been subjected to additional pressures in recent times.

Where the fish are particularly accessible, they are now being targeted as a food item. While the impact of this relatively new practice has not had a significant impact on coarse fish stocks nationally, some local problems have been recorded. The main problem appears to be perception. In Ireland, we are not used to seeing coarse fish killed and eaten and consequently domestic anglers are commonly angered when they witness this practice.

In 2005, on foot of concerns regarding the status of coarse fisheries in our rivers, a coarse fish review group was established under the chairmanship of the Central Fisheries Board. This group undertook a review of coarse fish policy with a view to developing an informed national policy for the management, development and protection of this resource.

On the advice of the review group, my Department introduced two by-laws, the Conservation of and Prohibition on Sale of Coarse Fish By-Law No. 806 2006 and the Conservation of Pike By-Law No. 809 2006, which control fishing for coarse fish. These by-laws provide several conservation measures, including that of limiting the number of fish that may be taken by anglers, and were introduced to prevent over-exploitation of coarse fish and pike in rivers, canals and lakes.

Details of these instruments were advertised as stipulated in the statute. The fisheries boards have undertaken several initiatives to publicise their content within the regions. These include multilingual signage erected at coarse fisheries and the printing of leaflets, in up to seven languages, setting out the content of the coarse and pike by-laws. These leaflets have been distributed by staff to all tackle shops and also to anglers on the riverbank. A considerable proportion of fisheries boards' resources and time is devoted to the protection of these stocks. The impact of these measures is being closely monitored by the boards.

For many years the fisheries boards and other State agencies have conducted surveys on coarse fish stocks and the relative health of the populations. Results from these quantitative and ongoing surveys indicate that coarse fish stocks in our main fishery rivers and lakes are healthy and sufficient to meet the needs of both domestic and tourist coarse fish anglers.

While the boards are always working to improve the coarse fisheries and their ecosystems, they are satisfied that our fisheries are not going through a period of serious decline due to overfishing.