Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Carey, and thank the Office of the Ceann Comhairle for facilitating this matter. The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 were made on 2 June 2010 and have been operational since 11 June 2010. The Loughs Agency, with the approval of the North-South Ministerial Council and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Ryan, introduced the regulations in exercise of the powers conferred by section 13(1) of the Foyle Fisheries Act 1952.

The Minister, Deputy Ryan, stated that the regulations have been introduced because "the numbers of migrating salmon counted going upstream in the Rivers Mourne, Faughan, Roe and Finn are below the specified stock level target numbers". In practice the regulation prevents 28 commercial fishermen, ten draftnet fishermen and 18 driftnet fishermen who did not opt into the voluntary buy-out scheme three years ago from fishing Lough Foyle for salmon in 2010. Last week the Minister of State, Deputy Conor Lenihan, told me in response to a parliamentary question that these 28 fishermen will not be provided with loss of earnings compensation.

This is a flawed fishery management framework. Everybody understands and supports the principle of conservation. Our marine industry is in trouble and it will die completely if we do not have fish stocks. That is accepted. However, the fishery management framework that underpins this regulation assumes that commercial fishermen are exclusively responsible for depletion of fish stock. That is a very simplistic and naive argument.

The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 is the 20th conservation regulation imposed on Lough Foyle commercial fishermen since 2007 and the Government still has not taken any action to curb predator seals and cormorant birds that forage on fish stocks in Lough Foyle. A study entitled Assessment of Harbour Seal Predation on adult salmonoids in a Pacific Northwest Estuary written by Bryan Wright, Susan D. Riemer and Robin F. Brown notes that harbour seals consumed one fifth of the estimated salmon run in the marine site they chose for the purposes of research. The study calls for a new fishery management framework with reference to control of abundant nature species.

I refer to the seal population. The Irish Marine Institute estimated in 2000 that 6,976 seals live off the Irish coast. That was ten years ago. There is no comprehensive up-to-date study but we know that seal populations have exploded since top predation ended.

I refer to the Lough Foyle cormorants and seals. In the case of Lough Foyle salmon, cormorants eat the smolts, the young salmon, that leave the lough for salt water and then seals kill the mature salmon that return. The adult seal eats 1.9 kg of salmon per day. The seal also kills for sport. Multiplied over a year and leaving aside salmon killed by seals for sport, the adult seal may eat up to 730 kg of salmon per annum. The average seasonal return of a Lough Foyle commercial net fisherman is 650 kg, which is less. One seal kills more salmon stock than one commercial salmon fisherman. Anecdotal evidence confirms that there are more than 28 seals in Lough Foyle. Seals are killing more Lough Foyle salmon than commercial fishermen.

I refer to the case for compensation. The livelihood of 28 commercial fishermen is seriously damaged by this ban. These men did not sign up to the salmon hardship fund offered to salmon fishermen in 2007 because they did not anticipate this ban.

Will the Government commission a survey on the number of predator seals and cormorants on Lough Foyle? Does it agree that the fishery management framework needs to be broadened to possibly include control of abundant predator species? Is either of the Foyle Fisheries Act 1952 or the Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulation 2010 subject to derogation?

This debate is not facile and the solutions are not simplistic. I spoke to Michelle Gildernew, MLA, the Minister's counterpart in Stormont yesterday. I understood her say that it is a very black and white issue. There is no salmon so commercial fisherman are banned.

There is an opportunity to allow fishermen to fish on a small scale with small boats, small quotas and for a limited number of days at sea. It would get people back working. It is an opportunity for the Government to get people along the coast working again. I ask the Minister not to bring the debate down to a facile level, that is, that commercial fishermen are destroying the stock. They are not because they are not even fishing.

Pat Carey (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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I am taking this matter on behalf of my colleague, the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Conor Lenihan. The Foyle Area (Control of Fishing) Regulations 2010 were made by the Loughs Agency which as Deputy McHugh knows is a North-South body under the co-sponsorship of the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland. The Loughs Agency is responsible for the protection and conservation of inland fisheries in the Foyle and Carlingford areas.

The 2010 regulations were made following a long period of consultation and development in order to meet the agency's national and international obligations, including the requirements of the European Habitats Directive. The regulations provide for a practical and equitable response to falling salmon numbers in the Foyle system. They allow for the suspension or restriction of angling or the use of nets on the Rivers Mourne, Faughan, Roe and Finn when necessary to conserve stocks, especially in times of drought or flood.

This addresses the fact that salmon stocks in the Foyle system were no longer meeting sustainability targets. There was particular concern over the impact of commercial fishing on the remaining stocks which only met 40% of their management targets last year. It should be noted that the issue of declining stocks has been the subject of a formal compliant to the European Commission in May 2010.

The complaint maintains that the use of 18 driftnet and ten draftnets within the Foyle system is not consistent with the requirements of the Habitats Directive. It argues that this fishing is indiscriminate in nature as it catches salmon from the weakest rivers in the system as well as from those that meet their conservation targets.

The Deputy will be aware that salmon stocks exploited in Lough Foyle by the commercial interceptory fishery up to 2006 had been achieving their conservation limits. However, scientific advice for 2006 indicated that a rationalisation of the fishery was necessary both to protect stock levels and to maintain the future viability of the commercial fishery. In May 2007, approval was given by the North-South Ministerial Council for the introduction of a suite of salmon conservation measures to be administered by the Loughs Agency. Regulations agreed by the council provided the agency with the necessary powers to manage wild salmon stocks in the Foyle and Carlingford areas. This was in compliance with the EU habitats directive and the recommendations of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation.

At that time, a hardship scheme was introduced in recognition of the impact that cessation of the mixed stock fishery at sea would have on traditional salmon fishermen. The scheme was introduced by the Loughs Agency in conjunction with its sponsor Departments - the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland. It was offered on a voluntary basis to former drift and draft net licence holders who were active during the period 2002 to 2006. The salmon hardship scheme was intended to provide a measure of relief to individual licence holders in line with the degree of hardship arising from the closure of the interceptory fishery seaward of Lough Foyle. The scheme was jointly funded by the Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. The total cost of the scheme was €3.8 million.

The number of drift nets that operated in the Foyle area reduced significantly from 112 to 18 and the number of draft nets which operated within the Lough and River Foyle decreased from 50 to ten. It should be stressed that the commercial nets-men who have not been issued with licences in 2010 were made aware in 2007 that if they did not accept the scheme, any future suspension or closure of the fishery would not attract hardship payments.

In the circumstances, there is no question of the suspended commercial interceptory fishery being reopened until stock levels allow. While there can be understandable sympathy for those impacted by the necessary suspension, introducing a new hardship scheme for fishermen who decided not to avail of the scheme previously introduced is not an option at this time. These fishermen made a choice to continue fishing rather than take the hardship scheme when there were serious concerns about the scale in the decline in salmon numbers in Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, if stock levels improve to a point where there is a harvestable surplus, then the regulations allow for the reopening of the fishery.

With regard to the Deputy's supplementary questions, I will arrange to have them examined by the Minister and the Department and I will ask him to communicate directly with the Deputy.