The proposed ban on the drift-netting of salmon will be debated by an Oireachtas committee next week, amid growing internal pressure in Fianna Fáil on the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, not to implement the plan.
The Minister was expected to get the approval of Government to implement the report of the Independent Salmon Group, which warned of a catastrophic decline in salmon stocks if drift netting continues.
However, about 20 Fianna Fáil TDs and Senators attended a meeting with Mr Dempsey to express their opposition to the proposal while, to date, none of the Minister's Fianna Fáil colleagues at any level in the party have come out in support of the report.
With Fine Gael also opposing the drift-net ban, the plan to protect Irish salmon stocks from destruction could be in serious trouble unless the Taoiseach and his Cabinet colleagues back the findings of the Government commissioned report.
There is also strong pressure on Mr Dempsey to provide a bigger compensation package for fishermen than the €25 million proposed by the salmon group.
The proposal was for a basic payment of €2,022 to each drift-net licence holder with a top-up payment of €23 per salmon caught over the past five years. The report was emphatic about how the compensation should be calculated.
"It is the opinion of the group that any hardship payment must be in line with the level of hardship likely to be experienced by an individual and that this should therefore be based on the recent catch history of the individual licence holder.
"Consequently only verifiable catch, that is catch based on tag returns, should count in this regard," said the report.
At their meeting with Mr Dempsey, Fianna Fáil TDs expressed strong opposition to the notion of compensation based on verifiable catch and they argued for a minimum €15,000 package per licence holder, regardless of whether the fishermen involved had actually caught any salmon over the past five years.
The Minister will be under more pressure at the meeting of the Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources on Wednesday. Some of his leading internal critics including Cork South West TD, Denis O'Donovan, are members of the committee, as is the Fine Gael marine spokesman, John Perry, who is also opposed to the ban. The balance may be redressed somewhat as the three-man Independent Salmon Group has also been invited to address the meeting and the ban will be supported by the PDs, Labour and the Greens.
The Irish Hotels Federation (IHF) is one of the few organisations to come out in support of the ban, saying it will have a fundamental positive impact on Ireland's salmon-angling tourism and return the number of visitors back to pre-1999 levels. The IHF maintained that within three to five years Ireland could double the number of salmon-angling tourists who bring an additional €50 million a year to the economy.
"The independent group's recommendations are a very important development in terms of rebuilding our regional tourism product, which has been under pressure from a number of factors in recent years. The decline in salmon-angling tourists due to depleted salmon stocks has been one of these issues. The recommendations will hopefully lead to an equitable buyout for drift-net fisherman and result in a speedy recovery of Irish salmon stock levels. This will position Ireland as a superb destination for salmon angling," said IHF chief executive John Power.
"If implemented, the recommendations will see Irish waters being free of drift-net fishing in 2007, providing tourism bodies with significant opportunities in marketing our regional and activity based tourism product."
