Dan Boyle (Cork South Central, Green Party)
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Question 102: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the body to be charged with overseeing the implementation of the new salmon regime; the legislative powers the body will be vested with; and the resources to be allocated for the additional monitoring of salmon numbers and for the introduction of new river management schemes to improve the spawning conditions and water quality for salmon. [38780/06]

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 158: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the way he will provide resources for river counters and inland fisheries staff to implement the salmon conservation programme highlighted as urgent in the report of the Independent Salmon Group; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38837/06]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 102 and 158 together.

Under the Fisheries Acts, primary responsibility for the management, conservation, protection, development and improvement of inland fisheries rests with the central and regional fisheries boards.

Funding is allocated directly to each fisheries board from the vote of my Department. These funds are applied by the fisheries boards towards their statutory functions, including the management of the wild salmon fishery, in each of the regions according to their needs. I am committed to enhancing the funding available to the fisheries boards for their protection and enforcement effort to ensure that the salmon stocks we are trying to rebuild are not unlawfully taken. I am confident that this increased funding will be reflected in the Revised Estimates Volume when published in the New Year.

As the Deputy may be aware, the management of the existing fish counters is undertaken by the regional fisheries boards and supported by the Marine Institute and this will continue through the National Fish Counter Programme. In so far as real time monitoring and management of stocks is concerned, I am advised that counters are only one method by which the assessment is made. Reliance is also placed on the expert analysis of catch data and surveys by fisheries officers and research officers of spawning areas, fish populations and habitat etc to monitor stocks.