David Norris (Independent)

According to The Irish Times, "Minister of State Pat the Cope Gallagher has ignored developmental and scientific advice and appears determined that nothing will halt the decline in salmon stocks...". It all comes down to ending drift netting. Of course, the fishermen must be compensated but there is no point pretending there will be a fishing industry if the practice is not ended. I will quote from another scientific paper: "The TAC [total allowable catch] approach has, however, been serious compromised by two factors: the consistent failure of the Minister of the day to follow scientific advice in setting TACs....". This is not against a particular party or Minister but against all of them. They have all been afraid to grasp this nettle.

On a personal basis I have a great fondness for the Minister and he is a decent man. However, he more or less admitted that he was massaging the situation a little. He told the House: "Senators will be aware that I have already given a firm commitment to aligning the exploitation of salmon with scientific advice by 2007...". One sees shades of St. Augustine, asking the Lord to make him chaste but not just yet because there is fun to be had in the meantime. The reference to 2007 is a clear indication that the Minister is not taking the scientific advice at present. He said as much in his speech by saying we will adhere to the scientific advice in 2007, two years hence. What will the situation be then? That is the problem.

There is another matter. I base my contribution on facts and the Minister is welcome to challenge them. According to the latest scientific advice the returns of spawning salmon in 2004 were below the levels required to meet their conservation limits in 14 of the 17 Irish fishery districts. Eight of the 14 districts were so far below their conservation limits that the scientific advice was that there was no exploitable surplus of salmon. In other words, there should have been no fishing in those areas. The source of this information is a paper entitled "Provisional Catch Advice for 2005 from the Standing Scientific Committee of the National Salmon Commission to the Commission", dated 30 November 2004.

I appreciate, as a practical politician, that there is a large scale drift net industry, particularly in the Donegal area. Let us be honest — that means there is political pressure. We should strengthen the Minister's hand in dealing with this political pressure by ensuring that all sides of the House recognise the crisis with fishing stocks. There is no question that there is a crisis. It is my understanding that most of the drift net fishermen recognise they are at the end of the line and will accept a compensation package.

The Minister also said that he will not make any money available until and unless it is proved to be in the common good. What planet are we on? It has been proved time and again that it is in the common good to give these people a dignified exit from a situation where they are destroying the industry for everybody, not just for the commercial trawlers. It also affects angling, which is worth €55 million to this country and has spin-off effects for hotels, cottage industries, ghillies, boatmen, the people who supply bait and so forth. There is a strong economic argument in that regard but it is being killed. The Minister is well aware that the angling magazines are warning people away from Ireland because of the disastrous situation. We must tackle this issue directly and immediately; putting it off is useless.

The Minister gave a party political speech in which he took on the spirit of the Taoiseach, Deputy Bertie Ahern, by saying, in effect, lots done, more to do. He stated that throughout the last year the Government has done this, that and the other, but that he fully accepts that there is more to be done. First, he has not done half enough in the past and, second, he can start immediately in addressing the situation regarding fish stocks. Those are comments on the Minister of State's speech. They are not made in a personal or partisan sense, I would say so to any Minister of any party in Government because we are facing a real crisis.

One must look at the figures. Senator Mansergh stated that we do not really know and the scientific evidence is unclear. Not only is it not unclear, it is unanimous and totally unambiguous. If Senator Mansergh thinks it is the seals who are responsible for it, then I suggest he should do another doctorate in marine biology and marine science because we know that at least 70% of the salmon catch throughout the entire island comes from drift netting. That only leaves 30% to be distributed among everybody else, including the unfortunate seals who have been——