Public Meetings on New Fisheries Bill

jkchambers

The main Fisheries Act is the 1959 Act many provisions of which are well gone out of date. It was generally all about salmon with other species hardly getting a mention. There have been several amending Acts since. IFI and the Dept are now working on a completely new Fisheries Bill to take over from the old Acts.
At a recent meeting between Inland Fisheries Ireland and the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs we were informed that the new bill will be a bill about fish and cover all species without prioritising any. It will also cover a complete change in the waterkeeper system. It will probably introduce a fisheries protection reserve force. I would think that it will also introduce a compulsory angler contribution or registration charge. I am sure that there will be lots more major changes.
They will soon publish the heads of bill. These are the subject matters of the various sections. They will not go into the detail of these sections. We were informed that there will be a series of public consultation meetings where anglers will be invited to come along and make comment and suggestions. They may also submit proposals. IFI will be hosting these information meetings and the Minister may attend some. It is expected that these meetings will commence towards the end of May.
It will be important for all of us that this new Bill contains what we want. It will be necessary for us to attend these meetings and present our views.

jkchambers

Modernisation and consolidation of the legislation governing the inland fisheries sector

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS, ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES
The Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Fergus O’Dowd, T.D. invites members of the public and interested parties to attend a public information meeting to canvass views on the major elements of new inland fisheries legislation, in advance of the statutory consultation period.
Details of venues, dates and times for the information meetings are as follows;

• Drogheda in the D Hotel on Monday 29th April 2013 at 6pm
• Tuam in the Ard Rí House Hotel on Tuesday 30th April 2013 at 6pm
• Carrick-on-Shannon in the Landmark Hotel on Wednesday 1st May at 6pm
• Clonmel in the Clonmel Park Hotel on Thursday 2nd May at 6pm
• Dublin in the Lucan Spa Hotel on Wednesday 8th May at 7pm

The Minister of State wishes to canvass a comprehensive range of views to inform the general thrust of the new legislation and the purpose of these meetings is to update interested parties on the process for submitting their views.
The statutory written consultation process will commence on Monday 13th May.

jkchambers

Anyone planning to go to one of these meetings ?
They will be talking about the main bill. Items covered will certainly include the new waterkeeper system and the possible introduction of a compulsory angler registration charge. It may also cover the make up of the Board of IFI etc
Topics such as catch and release, number of rods to be used etc are all bye law topics and will probably not be discussed

jkchambers

I got an email early this morning to say that heads of bill will not be available for the meetings as they are not done yet. Below are links to the 1959, 1980 and 2010 Acts. Have a look through them and they will give you an idea of the sort of things that will be discussed. Please dont let looking at these long Acts put you off attending. YOUR views are important and you should be there to either air them or support others who advocate what your thoughts are.
1959 - Main Act
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1959/en/act/pub/0014/index.html
1980 - Establishes Fisheries Boards
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/1959/en/act/pub/0014/index.html
2010 - Establishes IFI
http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/2010/en/act/pub/0010/

COYW

I plan on going to the one in Lucan, Dublin. Interesting to see what they have in mind. If my suspicions are correct and it is simple a fee (rod license) from which we will see no improvement on the canals/rivers, then I am not having it. If we see an increase in waterkeepers then I am willing to listen.

The amount of abuse of the canals by so called anglers is a joke. My local stretch is a wash with "anglers" who spend their day, drinking and smoking dope in gangs with one rod amongst them. You also get the customary visit when they arrive when they are looking for bait, hooks, weights and oh yes, a degorger when the finally catch some poor roach. After a few hours they get bored and decide to throw rocks and/or jump into the canal. Rant over!

jkchambers

The first angler consultation meeting was held tonight in the D Hotel in Drogheda. Present at the top table were Minister Fergus O`Dowd, Dr Ciaran Byrne of IFI, Denis Maher of the Dept and a chairman whose name I didnt catch. There were 3 or 4 IFI staff present and at least 4 others from the Dept. I would think that there were around 35 anglers there with nearly half being delegates from the Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs affiliated clubs. I wasnt really expecting a big turnout of anglers but I still thought that there may have been 60 plus.
The Minister made a short speech outlining that new legislation was necessary to keep up with changing times. He hoped that it would be passed by the end of the year but it would probably be next year.
Denis Maher of the Dept was next up. He used a powerpoint presentation to outline the whole process. He went through the various reasons why a complete revamp of leglislation was necessary. He then went through the full process from tonights meeting to written submissions, heads of bill being drawn up, going to cabinet, Dail committee stages, back to Dail etc. He agreed that the period for submission of written suggestions was a bit tight closing on 10th June and extended it to 5pm on 28th June.
We then had Ciaran Byrne. He outlined some of the flaws in current leglislation. Some of it was well out of date, existing leglislation didnt take habitat or biosecurity issues into account, waterkeeper system needed to change, fishery rates system needed change, more research into who owns fishing rights needs to be done. With regard to fisheries development IFI needed to work closely with clubs and federations.
Anglers were then asked to make suggestions. At that stage no mention had been made of angler contributions.
Various anglers made various proposals on a wide range of issues from cormorants to commercial salmon netting, to poaching, waterkeeper system, fishery licences, coarse fishing on trout/salmon waters etc
I mentioned the make up of the current board of IFI. That the previous minister had told us that no anglers would be appointed and that we ended up with 5 game anglers. We always seem to have Boards that are controlled by game anglers. There should be a way of getting a better balance. I then went to suggest that IFI take over the appointing and training of waterkeepers. I outlined that game angler waterkeepers would probable just want to be appointed over the waters that they lease while coarse/pike anglers generally dont have their own waters and that their appointments should be over all waters. I them mentioned the meeting last Sept when IFI invited all federations into their offices to talk about the future funding of inland fisheries. I said that all federations knew that they wanted the federations to talk about compulsory angler contributions and that some did suggest this subject to certain conditions. I added that IFPAC were not supporting a compulsory payment at this stage but we could review this should a proper new waterkeeper system be put in place and angler funds be ringfenced.
The Minister did say that he wanted full consultation on the Bill and that he wouldnt force anything on anglers if they didnt want it. After a while they will produce a shortlisting of maybe 6 issues and invite further comment on these. The Minister did seem to want to know what anglers wanted in the Bill and that did give some comfort to those present.