John Brassil (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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710. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will sanction the public commercial draft net licence for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17550/17]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) is the state agency responsible for the protection, management and conservation of Ireland's inland fisheries and sea angling resources.

IFI manages salmon stocks on an individual river basis as each of Ireland’s 147 salmon rivers (including river sections and estuaries) has its own genetically unique stock of salmon IFI is supported in its management role by the independent Standing Scientific Committee (SSC), comprising scientists from a range of organisations. Scientific and management assessments of each stock are carried out every year with IFI engaged in an extensive stock monitoring which feeds into the scientific committee's annual reviews.

Following scientific assessment and management advice, the surplus (if any) available in each river is established for the forthcoming fishing season so that it may be apportioned between anglers and commercial fishermen where a commercial fishery exists.

As each stock is assessed annually, the Control of Fishing for Salmon Order is enacted each year and sets out, in line with the conservation imperative, the maximum number of public draft net licences that are available to fishermen, for the forthcoming season, in each of the specific Fishery Districts where a commercial fishery exists.

The Order also authorises the issue of commercial fishing licences by IFI and sets out the clear criteria under which those licences may be issued. The maximum number of licences available in the Kerry District is 14 for the 2017 season. This has been the case each year since the 2011 season.