Dáil debates

Thursday, 19 April 2018

3:05 pm

Photo of Kathleen FunchionKathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad to have the opportunity to raise this issue on behalf of the Barrow River Piscatorial Society. I thank my colleagues, Deputies Martin Ferris and Martin Kenny, for their support in this regard. I have been dealing with the society for over a year. It is very active in the community and has very serious concerns about the mainly commercial pollution of the River Barrow and the knock-on effect on fishing stocks and the river in general. It has continuously raised the issue with Inland Fisheries Ireland, IFI, which seems to be passing the buck or not taking the matter seriously. When the society came to me, I endeavoured to organise a meeting for it with Inland Fisheries Ireland and there was correspondence back and forth. Unfortunately, Inland Fisheries Ireland has not committed to a meeting. The society has the right to request a meeting and I do not see the problem with granting such request. We raise the issue to ask the Minister to ensure that the chief executive of Inland Fisheries Ireland, Ciaran Byrne, meets with the Barrow River Piscatorial Society so that it can raise its concerns. It believes it is being treated as a second class citizen because groups with an interest in other rivers have been granted meetings with Inland Fisheries Ireland.

Photo of Martin FerrisMartin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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My two colleagues and I met with a deputation from the piscatorial society during the week. Deputy Funchion has been raising this issue for a considerable period. The society brought the issue to our attention in the interests of the salmon stocks in the river. As Deputy Funchion stated, it has sought a resolution to the issue for a considerable period with the IFI but, unfortunately, that has not yet been reached. The river has been polluted by construction material which was dumped in the vicinity of a fish pass, blocking it. As a result, fish find it difficult to get up the river, with an inevitable depletion of stocks. I have read emails in which some members of the IFI at a local level have stated they did not see the relevance of the fish pass being blocked. However, I have seen other letters that say the opposite. To resolve the issue, Ciaran Byrne, the chief executive of the IFI, must meet with the society, listen to what it has to say and see if a remedy can be found. That can happen if the political will is there.

Photo of Martin KennyMartin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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My colleagues and I met with the society earlier this week and it is very clear that it has genuine concerns about the situation. The River Barrow is a major river in the south east and the second longest in Ireland. It is an excellent salmon river but the society is very concerned that its stocks are being depleted. The construction debris dumped in the river and other pollution issues are not being adequately dealt with by Inland Fisheries Ireland or the environmental section of Carlow County Council, with which the society also engaged but which did not give it the kind of hearing it hoped for. The parties involved should come together to agree on a common sense solution. It is not beyond our reach to organise that and I hope the raising of this matter in the House will be the catalyst to make that happen such that a solution can be agreed upon. This is about the adequate management of our inland waterways. Inland Fisheries Ireland is responsible for that and must be brought to the table to work out a solution to this issue.

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I thank Deputies Funchion, Martin Kenny and Ferris for raising this issue. A response drafted by my Department is being circulated but it does not deal with the issue as raised so I will not read it into the record, although it is available for Deputies to read. The problem is that there is a multifaceted approach to issues such as this and responsibility does not lie with any one agency, which is hugely frustrating. As Deputy Kenny knows, there is a similar problem in regard to the Asian clam in Lanesborough-Ballyleague. The local authority and Inland Fisheries Ireland should probably consider the matter. I do not know the details of the issue as I have only the documentation in front of me.

4 o’clock

I am responding on behalf of the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, who has responsibility for inland fisheries. He is out of the country representing me at the moment.

As the Deputies are aware, the provisions of the water pollution Acts come under the remit of the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy. I will commit to taking the points raised by the Deputies back to the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, early next week. I will discuss this issue with him and we can try to see if we can progress it.

3:15 pm

Photo of Kathleen FunchionKathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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It is a simple request. We are asking the Minister to use his offices to insist that Inland Fisheries Ireland would meet this group. The society is an established group and its members have spoken to their local representative, which is not uncommon, but I cannot get any indication from Inland Fisheries Ireland that it intends to organise a meeting.

I accept that this is the area of responsibility of the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and I urge the Minister, Deputy Naughten, to speak to him and to try to organise a meeting. We will raise the issue again if a meeting is not facilitated. I do not accept that it is not the responsibility of one particular organisation. The group wants to meet with Inland Fisheries Ireland and it has its reasons for that. Such a meeting should be facilitated. It is pretty disgraceful that we have to come in here to raise the matter. The society is respected in its own right and it should have been able to arrange a meeting itself.

Photo of Martin FerrisMartin Ferris (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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The way to resolve the issue is for there to be a face-to-face meeting. It could take half an hour. A meeting can take place if the will is there to do it. In a reply from David McInerney to Donnacha Byrne it was said that material should not have been put in the river which is an SAC area and that it is very poor practice. The problem is that an individual dumped construction material into the river which blocked the fish pass. The material needs to be taken out of the river to allow the fish to travel their traditional route. All that is required is for the parties to sit down face to face and the issue can be sorted out very easily. I thank the Minister for taking the time to address this issue.

Photo of Martin KennyMartin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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I welcome the Minister's contribution. Sometimes when a Topical Issue is raised the question can be short and it may not spontaneously produce the right answer. I note that the scripted reply of the Minister states that the primary responsibility for the monitoring and management of water quality is the local authority under the Local Government (Water Pollution) Acts. While that is the case, local authorities are quite weak because in many cases they are understaffed and under resourced and I am sure Carlow County Council is no different from many others around the country, and it is difficult for it to try to do the kind of work it is expected to do in respect of water quality.

I would appreciate if something could be done to try to arrange a meeting as quickly as possible in order to resolve the issue. It is very poor that we have to come in here to try to get that to happen. If an angling organisation, environmental group or conservation group has an issue or someone involved in tourism who is trying to make a few bob out of whatever is happening on the river cannot meet with the proper organisations who have responsibility for it without having to raise it in the Dáil, it is a poor reflection on the situation. That issue must be addressed as well. I thank the Minister very much for his response.

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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I do not know the detail of this case. The priority is to get the issue resolved. I will take the matter back to the Department and to the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, to see if we can try to resolve it. I do not know the ins and outs of the matter, but it seems there could be three Departments and two agencies under the control of my own Department involved. I do not know what the issues are but I commit that I will go back to the Minister of State, Deputy Kyne, and he will communicate directly with the Deputies on the matter.

Photo of Seán Ó FearghaílSeán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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It is not my role to interfere in these matters but it would be quite extraordinary if a reputable voluntary organisation, through public representatives, asked for a meeting with a statutory body and those representatives felt the need to come into the Chamber to progress the issue. The statutory body would want to have a pretty compelling reason it would not facilitate the meeting.