Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

While the legislation provides that Inland Fisheries Ireland must report and manage its business on the basis of river basin districts, one must be cognisant of the fact policy in this area is ever evolving. Consequently, there may be a time when it is not appropriate for the new body to manage its operations precisely on this particular basis.

Subsections (2) and (3) were included in the Bill to allow the Minister to amend, by order, this arrangement. Either House of the Oireachtas can annul an order made under this section within a 21 day period of it being laid before it. If we remove this provision, as suggested by the amendment, the only way any management and reporting arrangements can be amended in future would be by means of new primary legislation. This could be unnecessarily cumbersome if a minor adjustment for operational reasons were required. This is an important provision that needs to be retained in the legislation.

This particular provision was the subject of detailed debate during the passage of the Bill through the other House. Having taken the discussion on board, there is now provision in the Bill that the joint Oireachtas committee shall be consulted before any such order is made. This amendment to the Bill made by the other House addresses the concerns of the Senator and in the circumstances I am not inclined to accept his amendment.

It is important to reiterate that this came up in the other House. In the spirit of what the Senator suggested, I made the concession that should a Minister choose to change the operational mandate or area from it being other than a river basin district, one would notify the committee of that intention so members would be involved. Effectively, it means that if there were to be minor adjustments or changes to the river basin district, in other words if one were to decide to move part of one river basin district into another for purely operational reasons, one would not have to go back to the House with formal legislation as it would be done by way of an order. It is for administrative convenience. The other House addressed whether it would be open to a Minister to re-carve entirely the basis for the management of the inland water resource. That is unlikely because a major move of that kind would require extensive consultation.

Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.

Section 9 agreed to.

Sections 10 and 11 agreed to.

SECTION 12.