Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I raise this matter on behalf of draft net fishermen who fish the River Foyle in County Donegal. Licences in the draft net fishery on the tidal River Foyle are applied for annually and are, therefore, not owned or traded. I understand from anecdotal evidence that there are approximately 50 draft net fishermen who have fished the River Foyle on the upper stretch alone. Approximately 40 of these availed of the buy-out or hardship package available and the remaining ten men continued to fish. However, my grievance is on behalf of approximately 15 licence holders or fishermen who were refused licences. Most are elderly and some are pensioners who have fished this stretch throughout the years during very difficult times. They were refused licences by the Loughs Agency in Derry, which is responsible for that fishery. Why were the fishermen not properly consulted when the guidelines on the dispersal of the licences were being drawn up?

I refer to the hardship package. This package was compiled and specifically designed to facilitate a diversification of effort from commercial salmon fishing to other activities. The hardship package developed for the Foyle area had two fundamental pillars. It would be made available only on a voluntary basis in the draft net fishery to those who would have qualified for a licence in the 2007 season. However, several of those fishermen did not qualify in the 2007 season and the reasons were not properly explained to them. They were not consulted prior to the refusal of a licence and this is the nature of their query.

Fishermen were refused in two areas. New applicants in 2007 were refused under the scheme because they did not have a history of fishing. In addition, licences were refused for previous licence holders who according to section 4c of the regulations had not fished for reasons covered under points 3 to 5 of the regulations, or whose nets were operated by an unapproved senior helper. Such people would, in previous years, have been considered for approval. Let us consider points 3 to 5 which refer to people with chronic illnesses, or people with unapproved senior helpers. These so-called unapproved senior helpers had been fishing that fishery previously without question, so why were they being refused in 2007? These questions have been raised by fishermen in recent years and, more recently, with me.

It is important to raise the matter in the House because the Government provided financial assistance to the Loughs Agency for the compensation package. How much assistance was provided by it? While the Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Seán Power, may not have the answers tonight, I would be glad to wait until the answers are provided. How much money or funding is left in the compensation package and has not been dispersed to the fishermen who have fished there for more than 60 years?

Will the Minister of State consult with the Loughs Agency to begin a process of negotiation with the affected fishermen, to allow their grievances to be heard, because they clearly feel they have been wronged. They are fishermen of this jurisdiction and they believe they have been wronged by the Loughs Agency which is based in Derry city in the North. Will the Government consult with the Loughs Agency and clearly outline to it that the fishermen I represent are not happy, and that a mechanism for listening to the concerns of those fishermen should be established? Will the Government seek to find a mechanism either to allow the fishermen to continue to fish, or allow them to avail of the hardship package? It is wrong that such fishermen who have been fishing there for more than 60 years cannot avail of such a package. The fishermen have many questions. While I am not an expert in relaying some of their queries, I do so tonight to the best of my ability in the hope that we can provide the answers the fishermen seek.

I recognise the Minister will listen and I appreciate that he may not have the specific answers tonight. I would be happy to wait for those responses, as would the fishermen. I hope we can bring clarity and a conclusion to this matter which is frustrating to the community in Lifford and St. Johnston.

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank Senator Ó Domhnaill for raising this matter. I am pleased to provide as much information as possible. If there are particular issues raised by the Senator to which I cannot respond tonight, I would be please to follow up on the matter.

In May 2007, approval was given by the North-South Ministerial Council for the introduction of salmon conservation measures to be administered by the Loughs Agency of the Foyle, Carlingford and Irish Lights Commission. The agency is a North-South body established under the British Irish Agreement Acts, responsible for, among other things, the protection and conservation of inland fisheries in the Foyle and Carlingford areas.

Regulations agreed by the North-South Ministerial Council provided the Loughs Agency with the necessary powers to manage wild salmon stocks in the Foyle and Carlingford areas, in compliance with the EU habitats directive and the recommendations of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organisation. Recognising the impact that cessation of the mixed stock fishery at sea would have on traditional salmon fishermen, approval was also given for a hardship scheme for former drift and draft net licence holders who were active between 2002 and 2006.

Commercial salmon fishing has traditionally involved the use of drift and draft nets. Drift net fisheries have operated in the Foyle area and in the area seaward of Lough Foyle. Draft net activity has been concentrated in recent years in the tidal River Foyle, between Derry and Strabane. As the stocks exploited seawards of Lough Foyle are mixed and include stock from rivers not achieving their conservation limits, the agency introduced regulations to prohibit fishing of salmon in this area. The stocks exploited in the Foyle by the commercial fishery had previously been achieving their conservation limits, but were unlikely to continue to do so if a rationalisation of the fishing effort was not achieved. In 2006, evidence indicated that a rationalisation was necessary for stock levels to continue to meet conservation limits and for the future viability of the commercial fishery.

The Loughs Agency, in conjunction with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Northern Ireland, introduced a hardship package for salmon fishermen no longer able to fish in the drift net fishery. The scheme was extended, on a voluntary basis, to the existing draft net fishery operators who fished their licences in 2006. The salmon hardship scheme was intended to provide a measure of relief to individual licence holders in line with the degree of hardship likely to be experienced on foot of the cessation of salmon fishing arising from the closure of the interceptory fishery seaward of Lough Foyle.

Payments under the scheme were calculated on the basis of the average catch of the individual licensee between 2002 and 2006, as declared in catch returns. The value to the licensee of these fish after expenditure on fishing operations was calculated at €24.50 per salmon. The licensee's hardship payment equates to five times the average catch multiplied by this value per fish. In recognition of the investment that fishermen have made in fishing gear, an additional sum of six times the value of the 2007 licence fee was also paid.

To qualify for payment under this scheme, therefore, applicants would have had to have been awarded a licence between 2002 and 2006 and have operated in the fishery themselves as licence holders. Payments would only be made once the fishermen had signed an undertaking that they would not apply for a licence again and that their fishing gear had been decommissioned in a certified manner.

The scheme is funded by the Irish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive. State aid approval was obtained for the scheme from the European Commission. There were 130 successful applications under the Loughs Agency scheme consisting of 90 former drift net licensees and 40 former draft net licensees. A number of applications were unsuccessful as they did not meet the eligibility criteria because they were unable to show evidence of active fishing between 2002 and 2006. The total cost of the scheme administered by the Loughs Agency is expected to be around €3.8 million. A total of €3.2 million has been paid to date, of which 50% was Exchequer funded. The remaining €600,000 will be paid out in 2009. The number of drift nets that operated in the Foyle area has been reduced from 112 to 18 and the number of draft nets which operated within the lough and River Foyle decreased from 50 to 12. The management and operation of the wild salmon fishery in Lough Foyle is now consistent with the habitats directive.

Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. He has answered two of my three questions. Can he engage with his Department to get the Loughs Agency to discuss the concerns of the local fishermen? I am not sure if that is possible but it is vital and the fishermen feel the same way. I would like to see some consultation initiated so that we could listen to the concerns of the fishermen affected who feel that they have been wronged.

Seán Power (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

There are always qualifying criteria to any scheme. It is only natural that those who do not meet the criteria will feel disappointed. In view of what the Senator said, I will be happy to consult officials in my Department and get back to him.