Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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508. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if the rates being paid by a person (details supplied) to Inland Fisheries Ireland will be examined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2940/19]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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Inland Fisheries Ireland (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 scientific advice from Ireland’s independent Standing Scientific Committee (SSC), comprising scientists from a range of organisations. IFI also has to have regard EU legislation, most notably the Habitats Directive under which salmon habitats are protected.

Scientific and management assessments of each of the distinct stocks, including the river Feale, are carried out every year with IFI engaged in extensive stock monitoring which feeds into the Scientific Group's annual reviews. An average of the 5 years of data is used to estimate expected returns for the coming year to ensure that a good or bad year does not have a disproportionate impact on the stock assessment in any single year.

Based on the annual assessment carried out for the 2019 season added to the previous 4 years' assessments, the River Feale is not closed. It is open to catch and release angling. The Feale has been previously open to harvest fishing for a number of years.

The rateable value of fisheries is set by the Valuation Office on a statutory basis. It is a matter, in the first instance, for fishery owners to contact the Valuations Office as regards the possibility of amending the valuation in the light of current circumstances.

Inland Fisheries Ireland is statutorily obliged to collect rates based on rateable valuation established by the Valuations Office. IFI has no statutory function in relation to that issue nor any power to amend rateable valuations.