Peter Power (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Question 184: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his Department will offer a financial compensation scheme for drift net fishermen similar to the scheme presently in place (details supplied), if they surrender their licence after 21 December 2007; if the ban on drift net fishing will be reviewed by his Department in the next five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31773/07]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Applicants have until the 31 December 2007 to accept any offer under the Salmon Hardship Scheme. This deadline, I believe, provides ample time for those concerned to give the scheme due consideration.

The Standing Scientific Committee of the National Salmon Commission has advised that stocks of salmon in a number of rivers in the Shannon Estuary are below conservation limit.

The Regional Fisheries Board and the Marine Institute will monitor the stocks in developing a management plan for each of the rivers with a view to identifying the extent of the recovery, if any, arising from the cessation of the harvesting of salmon and any stock rehabilitation works undertaken.

In the future event that stocks recover in each of the rivers of the Shannon Estuary and it is established from the results of the Genetic Stock Identification project that significant numbers of fish destined for other rivers are not intercepted within the estuary by commercial nets, it should be possible to exploit the identified surplus by all methods but within the constraints permitted by the Habitats Directive.