A fisheries officer in Cork was taken to hospital with leg injuries yesterday after a car was driven into him.
The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, has condemned as "vicious" the attack on two inland fishery officers in Co Cork yesterday which resulted in one officer being taken to hospital.
The officer, with the South-Western Regional Fisheries Board (SWRFB), was struck by a car allegedly driven by a gang of poachers, while a second officer was assaulted.
Garda∅ in Macroom are investigating the incident, which occurred at Farnanes, halfway between Ballincollig and Macroom.
The fisheries officer received treatment for leg injuries in Cork regional hospital later yesterday, while his colleague was said to be in shock.
The fisheries board manager, Mr Aidan Barry, confirmed that the two officers were patrolling the banks of the river Bride, and had apprehended a group of five poachers.
There has been a history of poaching salmon on the river at this time of year, when the fish are stripped of roe which is then used to make bait for catching trout.
The activity is illegal, and the identity of the poachers is understood to be known to the board.
Mr Barry said irregular assaults were "an unsavoury aspect of life" for fisheries officers employed by regional fisheries boards.
Three of his officers had been hospitalised following assault this year, he said.
Meanwhile, the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources says it has received no information on an alleged escape of farmed salmon in the Kenmare river. A spokesman said the SWRFB had received reports from local fishermen of sightings of large salmon in the area, and had arranged for a test and analysis of an "alleged escapee".
Last month, some 9,000 rainbow trout escaped from a fish farm in Clew Bay, Co Mayo, when a net lifting crane hydraulic system failed.
The trout will not spawn in the wild, the Department said.
However, an action plan was being implemented to remove the trout from the Burrishoole and Newport river systems, and this was being carried out by the North-Western Regional Fisheries Board (NWRFB) and Marine Institute.
