Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

We are talking about depleted stocks. The action we are taking now might be too late. There is no certainty that we can recover the stock but we are making every effort to do it.

Regarding the instruction from Europe, we had to submit our plan by 31 December and as a minimum countries which failed to do that would have to see a reduction of 50% in their catch, in addition to the plan they were to submit. It has been said to me that we are the only country adopting this approach. I cannot agree with that because I am not aware of the plans of other countries. They have not published them and I have not seen them.

Lough Neagh is a different case. There has been an onus on fishermen there for a number of years where they were taking eel from the Severn and stocking Lough Neagh. That is a different case and there is a different operation there, on which I can give the Senator the detail later.

It is not my intention to upset people. I know people were fishing eel on a commercial basis while others were doing it as a hobby. It is something they enjoyed doing and all of a sudden we are putting an end to that. The only reason we are doing it is to protect the eel so that future generations can enjoy this pastime or commercial activity that others have enjoyed for a number of years. That is the only reason we submitted the plan. I await the response from Europe but I would be negligent had I taken any other decision than the one I have taken.