Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I support the points made by Senator Brian Hayes, which are totally in line with two reasons we need legislation in this area. Under the Good Friday Agreement there was a commitment to shadow legislation in both jurisdictions to ensure a similar approach to these issues. As Senators will recall, in the past couple of weeks we dealt with the Europol (Amendment) Bill 2006, which is being debated in the Dáil this week, to allow co-operation among police forces in various states, the principle of which we were all in favour, even if there were difficulties with certain aspects. People want this issue to be dealt with in a legal fashion. The weekend newspapers concentrated on paedophilia, which is appalling, but whatever the crime, if someone breaks probation in the North he or she should not be given sanctuary in this State. It defies everything we have supported over the years.

Probation arrangements should be on an all-Ireland basis at the very least. In fact they should be wider in scope, as proposed in the Europol (Amendment) Bill 2006. I ask the Government to deal with that issue, in which it will have my support. It is appalling that sanctuary be given to people charged with any crime, not just paedophilia.

There has been much discussion in the past 24 hours on the report of the three wise men on salmon drift net and draft net fishing, which Senator Norris welcomed yesterday. My views are very clear — it will make no difference. I repeat what I said in the House a year ago about the groceries order. The Government will clearly eliminate drift net fishing and implement the other recommendations in the report because politically, it must do so. However, the only people who believe that buying out 39 salmon licences in a county will stop salmon fishing are those naive enough to believe the only people fishing for salmon are those with the 39 licences, which is not and has never been the case. There is an east coast naivety about salmon fishing, dependent on statistics supplied by officialdom which have never accurately reflected the industry. The only way to deal with the issue of salmon stocks is to get all the people to co-operate, as has happened in Canada and other places. The Government's abolition of salmon fishing will make no difference other than to put people out of work in various places around the country.