The Cabinet will today be urged to back plans supported by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, to ban all drift-net fishing for salmon from next year.
Mr Dempsey has not heeded calls to abandon the plan, and will not propose that the State increase the €30 million compensation on offer to 800 drift-net fishermen.
He also has not accepted calls that the State should let some drift-net fishing continue by buying out the licences of those drift-net fishermen who want to quit the business, The Irish Times understood last night.
However, it is still unclear if Ministers will decide finally to accept the outright ban, proposed by independent salmon experts, before Minister of State for the Marine, John Browne, briefs an Oireachtas committee this afternoon.
Though some Fianna Fáil backbenchers, such as Cork South West's Denis O'Donovan, have vocally opposed the ban, some Ministers have noted the general lack of alarm among members of the Fianna Fáil parliamentary party about the issue.
Questioned yesterday, the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, was non-committal on how the Cabinet's decision would eventually fall. "It is important to protect salmon, and to protect salmon fishermen.
"Serious scientific advice has been given about the decline of salmon, particularly in rivers in the east, but we can't wipe out [ fishermen's] lives," she told The Irish Times.
Minister of State Mr Browne and two of the three-strong Independent Salmon Group will appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, chaired by Fianna Fáil TD Noel O'Flynn at 2.30pm.
Last night Mr O'Flynn said: "I think it is important that the committee would understand how the consultants arrived at their decisions, particularly since the committee has issued its own report on this area."
The Cabinet is under pressure to accept the blanket ban because the European Commission has warned that serious fines could be imposed for breaches of the EU Habitats Directive if drift-netting does not end. Though Ministers discussed the report from the salmon experts last week, Mr Dempsey gave them a brief on its contents at their meeting the week before.
Under the Independent Salmon Group's recommendations, anglers would also face curbs because many of the rivers in the east would be closed for several years to allow stocks to recuperate.
Salmon fishing would be prohibited in all rivers that do not have "an identifiable surplus" of fish, while rivers on which insufficient statistics exist would also be closed where 10 salmon or less are being caught.
Green Party TD Éamon Ryan, who has supported Mr Dempsey's actions, said the Government had to make decisions quickly because quotas for draft-net fishing in river estuaries will have to be decided quickly.
The draft-net quotas could be increased significantly if the competition from their sea-based drift-net counterparts is ended, but draft-net quotas will be extremely difficult to set properly, he warned.
Mayo drift-net fishermen are to march on Dáil Éireann today to protest against the ban, and to urge the Government to buy out the licences of those who want to leave voluntarily.
Fine Gael TD John Perry has defended his opposition to an outright ban, arguing that such a measure would remove 80 per cent of all drift-net fishermen from the industry within months.
"The remaining 20 per cent could then be effectively controlled with shortened seasons, reduced quotas and effective monitoring reviewed after three years," said Mr Perry, in ideas similar to those proposed last year by the Oireachtas committee.
