Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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505. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to reduce the prices charged by Inland Fisheries Ireland for the purchase of licences and permits for angling on rivers and inland fisheries including day permits and those of longer duration; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23715/18]

Seán Kyne (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Currently there is no licence required or fee payable when fishing for trout and the numerous array of coarse fish species (pike, bream, roach, trench etc.) on State owned fisheries in Ireland. In addition, no licence or fee is required for sea angling.  This covers the vast majority of angling activity in Ireland. This contrasts with the significant majority of other countries world-wide where licence fees are payable for all angling activity.  Anglers of all ages, therefore, currently have significant opportunity to participate in angling without cost.  

In addition, certain fisheries, in the ownership of the ESB, and defined as private fisheries, attract a permit fee. A formal agreement was entered into by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) to manage 17 of the ESB’s fisheries in the Midlands. This agreement included an arrangement for IFI to use the permit fees, due to ESB as fishery owners, from these fisheries to fund their management costs, which are additional to IFI’s costs for managing State owned fisheries.  ESB charge similar fees for the Lower Shannon and Mulkear fisheries.  

The practice of charging permit fees is long established and angling clubs that licence a fishery from the State may also charge a permit for anglers who are not a member of the club.

The only two species for which anglers are currently required to hold and pay for a licence are salmon and sea trout.  There are a range of licence options available, and the price structure for licences facilitates broad participation in salmon and sea trout angling at economic rates.

Changes in licence fees are considered annually and normally reflect movement in the Consumer Price Index. In this regard, reflecting the prevailing economic conditions, a reduction in fees for all licence categories was introduced for the 2012 fishing season, and these reduced levels have been maintained by me as Minister.  I will again review the relevant fees this year.

Annual permit fees on ESB fisheries managed by IFI amount to 86c per week for adults, 48c per week for senior citizens and 38c per week for juveniles. Permits for shorter periods are also available.  On average, permit fees account for an annual income of €120,000 and the cost to IFI to protect, develop, manage and conserve these fisheries is considerably in excess of this.

I would also advise, regarding salmon and sea trout licences, that a fisheries conservation component was applied to all licence fees in 2007, as part of a suite of conservation measures for the management of wild fisheries. This component represents 50% of the licence fee, and income generated from this component is ring-fenced by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) for the rehabilitation of salmon habitats and conservation measures throughout the country.

All of the proceeds of the salmon and sea trout licence fees income are reinvested, by IFI, in the conservation, protection and development of wild fisheries habitats and stocks directly, or through the Salmon Conservation Fund scheme, with a particular emphasis on prioritised investment in those rivers in most need of rehabilitation.

Similarly, a significant portion of the permit revenue collected by IFI in relation to the management of ESB fisheries is redistributed into the catchments by way of the Midlands Fisheries Fund, which provides funding to angling clubs, community groups etc., to enhance those fisheries