Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I am acutely aware of the decline in wild salmon and sea trout stocks in Irish (and international) waters, including in Kenmare Bay and Ballinskelligs Bay, over recent decades.

My focus, and that of inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), as the statutory authority for the protection, management and conservation of Ireland’s inland fisheries and sea angling resources, is on conservation and sustainability of the resource.

Ireland has long been internationally recognised for embedding the conservation imperative as a vital component of our management of the precious salmon resource. While the policy has served us well for more than a decade, I intend, as part of a broader inland fisheries policy review to set out options for improvement, with an even greater focus on conservation, in our management regime and for modernising licensing requirements, to ensure access to the resource where its conservation and biodiversity needs are met.

Aquaculture policy and regulation is a matter for the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and one in which I do not have a function.