Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to assure the Senator that the question he raises in regard to fish counters is addressed in what I said, but I will get him the detail of how many there are and on how many rivers. I know that a significant number of rivers do not have them. What the Department relies on is the catch log book and, as it has done on other rivers, including the River Boyne, it will work with local fishermen and through other surveys during the year to find out what juniors are present. It undertakes as broad as possible an analysis and involves the local fishermen as much as possible. At the end of the day, however, if the fish are not there, or if there are not sufficient fish to make a catch, then there is no point. With regard to snap net fishermen in particular, who catch and release, this would not help them because that is not how catch and release operates. That location would then be at a disadvantage in terms of their activity.

I will ask IFI to contact the Senator directly following today's discussion. I thank him for putting this off until today so I could be here to give the issue the answer it deserves and to see if there is further progress we can make. As I said, the solution is to communicate with the fishermen, deal with them, listen to their point of view and see whether there is other analysis or extra work that can be done to analyse this and get a better figure than the counter would otherwise get.