Minister of State Pat The Cope Gallagher said yesterday he remained unconvinced that investments to buy out the commercial wild salmon fishery could be returned from the tourism angling sector.
The Minister was addressing an Oireachtas committee on salmon fishing which is investigating ways to conserve wild salmon stocks depleted by over-exploitation.
One of the main issues before the committee is whether the commercial salmon fishery should be bought out and the tourism and recreational angler sector developed.
Mr Gallagher said he was not closed to the idea of a buyout but no convincing case had been made to him. He said no consensus had been reached on balancing the salmon resource in favour of tourism.
However, Prof Brendan Whelan, of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), told the committee that the economic arguments were in favour of putting the balance on the recreational side.
The Minister said: "I am fully aware of the suggestions in some recent reports to the effect that there is greater economic potential for the State to be derived from the development of the tourism angling sector than from the commercial fishing sector where salmon is concerned."
However, he added, he was also aware that consultations conducted by State agencies on these findings had elicited widely divergent views among stakeholders not only on the findings but also on the methodology adopted to carry out these studies.
"As a result, ongoing analysis indicates different valuation figures for the wild salmon fishery and no consensus has been reached on any suggestions that a rebalancing of exploitation of the salmon resource in favour of tourism angling would deliver significant benefits to the State from a public good perspective," Mr Gallagher said.
The critical question was whether the significant investments in the sector required for a buyout compared in terms of return to other potential investments in the tourism area. "To date, I remain unconvinced that this is the case," the Minister added.
Prof Whelan said the argument in favour of putting the balance on the recreational side rather than the commercial was increasingly strong. However, he added that the problem was how to go about changing the method of exploitation.
"It would be very foolish to eliminate the commercial fishery without making sure the benefits are captured on the fresh water side."
The former economist, Dr TK Whitaker, representing the Wild Salmon Support Group and who has also been associated with the Salmon Research Agency, said he did not favour a buyout. "If you have a system of individual quotas, you can mop up some extra help by offering an incentive to those who surrender their quotas."
Any action to reduce the fishing commercially did not require compensation, he added.