Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to introduce attendant by-laws to deal with salmonid conservation; if he will provide a draft of these bye-laws; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42620/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The annual Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations which provide for the management, development and conservation of stocks of wild salmon and sea trout by Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), were published on 12 November last and are available at www.gov.ie/salmontaggingregulations. They are currently out to statutory public consultation.These regulations provide for the status of each salmon river (open to harvest, closed to harvest or open to catch and release angling) and the tagging and recording requirements for exploitation of the resource, in respect of the 2021 season  The status of each river and the surplus (if any) available for harvest set out the in the Regulations is based on annual scientific assessment of each genetically unique river stock by the independent Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS) which underpins annual management  advice by IFI.

A suite of annual secondary legislation (bye-laws) is currently being drafted and mainly involves additional conservation measures for individual fisheries (rivers) or groups of fisheries to reflect the status of the rivers contained in the Regulations. In particular, they contain measures to ensure that the provisions in relation to catch and release status contained in the regulations are not compromised by the use of equipment or baits not conducive to the survival of fish.

These bye-laws will be available on the gov.ie website in due course.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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207. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his plans to reintroduce monitored community fishing schemes to allow previous fishing practices such as salmon and eel fishing be used for artisanal and traditional purposes to generate tourism potential and preserve heritage in villages around Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42624/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The fundamental determining factor as to whether a fishing activity can be facilitated is the availability of a sustainable surplus of stocks in line with the conservation imperative. Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) manages salmon on an individual river basis as each river has it own genetically unique stock of salmon. These individual stocks are subject to annual scientific and management review. Exploitation is only permitted on stocks which are meeting their individual conservation limit - the number of spawning adults to maintain a healthy population.  Such rivers are open to angling and, where a commercial fishery exists to commercial harvest.  Estuaries are open to fishing only where the rivers contributing to the estuary are each maintaining a sustainable surplus. A statutory public consultation process on the draft legislation governing salmon fishing for 2021 closes tomorrow.

IFI also undertakes ongoing research and monitoring of eel populations in Irish waters every year. The European eel is a single stock across the entire European continent and distribution is naturally random between countries.  The species is on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (ICUN) red list of endangered species. The very latest international scientific advice is that anthropogenic mortality should be kept at zero or as close to zero as possible. In line with this advice, and Ireland's Eel Management Plan approved by the European Commission under EU regulation 1100/2007, the fishery in Ireland remains closed and there is a prohibition in legislation on issuing licences. No harvesting of eels is permitted and I have no plans to change this position.