Joe McHugh (Fine Gael)

I acknowledge the role played by Senators Dardis and Glynn in raising the issue of game angling. I am delighted that someone eventually highlighted the very serious problem of depleting salmon stocks in Irish rivers. The problem concerns drift and draft net fishermen and game anglers. Vigilante game anglers do not abide by certain rules. Fine Gael launched a document on a salmon charter last week. Part of it involves a voluntary buy-out of drift and draft net fishermen, a measure proposed by Deputy Perry which is taken very seriously by Fine Gael. It is time the Government bit the bullet in respect of this issue instead of establishing commission after commission and procrastinating. A total of 54,000 anglers visited Ireland in 1999, while 27,000 anglers visited the country last year. This represents a 50% reduction in the number of anglers visiting Ireland, which is an alarming trend and indicative of the seriousness of the problem.

I agree with the call by Senator Brian Hayes and Senator Maurice Hayes for a debate on Northern Ireland. This debate should not simply address the political impasse. We need synchronisation of policy because, irrespective of whether we like it, Westminster is co-ordinating policy for Northern Ireland while Dublin co-ordinates policy at a central level here. However, we are not singing from the same hymn sheet. Mark Durkan, MLA, and Gregory Campbell, MLA, put down a motion in the House of Commons three weeks ago in respect of a high-speed train service from Belfast to Derry that included Letterkenny. They decided as representatives of Northern Ireland to include Letterkenny but what have we done in our capital as part of our transport plan? We have no railway infrastructure plans involving links between Letterkenny and Derry. It is time we woke up and began co-ordinating policy, including economic policy. There is a political impasse but we can still co-ordinate and synchronise our plans at both central levels.