Inland and Marine Fisheries: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-04 ============================================================ Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel The Minister of State is very welcome. I want to make a few points, starting with inland fisheries. The issue around water quality has been mentioned. In his opening statement, he mentioned the Blackwater fish kill. All around the country, river trusts are being established. Some now connect to the water action plan, for which community catchment fora will be established. This will provide us with a mechanism and basis under which we can work collaboratively to restore our rivers, as the previous speaker said. The benefits that can be accrued from restoring nature at scale, in particular in our waters, will have knock-on positive benefits for inland fisheries, in particular removing barriers to fish passage and spawning, which was a clear commitment in the water action plan I launched a couple of years ago. Separately, some of the pilot projects initiated over the past number of years need to happen at scale. It is important. On the work that is ongoing, our River Nore trust met a few weeks ago. It is wonderful to see anglers, activists and environmentalists coming together with a shared vision for water quality that will do wonders to establish or re-establish our waters as healthy places for fish. The climate committee will produce its report on the Blackwater fish kill. To me, the response has been wholly inadequate. It beggars belief that the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, still has not revoked a licence for a repeat offender. We know there is a repeat offender in this case and we know where the source is coming from. It has to be the case that, if incidents like this continue, they be dealt with. This is one of the largest fish kills in the history of the State. If we do not have the mechanisms in the State to go after the offenders in this case, we will see more of them. I hope the commitment the Minister of State gave in his opening statement is met. It is critical that we have confidence in the system. I was sent a video from an angler in my county, Kilkenny, of a slurry tanker parked off a roadside pouring slurry into a field high up into the air while there was still heavy rainfall, very near the River Nore special area of conservation, SAC. That is unacceptable in this day and age. From our perspective, as a collective as we are now establishing our river trust and want the State and Government match our commitment to restoring our waters. We are doing work week in and week out on invasive species, etc. The farming for water EIP was mentioned. It is a positive way forward and I welcome the ongoing commitment of the Government on that. We also have to get a commitment that the Government will fight tooth and nail to ensure that dedicated LIFE funding is maintained in the next European multi-annual financial framework out of the next EU budget. There is a very real threat to stand-alone funding streams, which are vital. We see that with the Lough Carra, Wild Atlantic Nature and many other environmental LIFE projects. If we lose that dedicated fund, I fear that a lot of the money for the competitiveness fund will instead be diverted to other priorities in other member states. I ask the Minister of State and the Government to fight to ensure that the dedicated environmental funding is there to support landowners to restore our waters. The Minister of State will not be surprised to hear that my final point relates to our marine protected areas, MPAs, and MPA legislation. My understanding from the Minister of State's response to a Commencement matter is that he has given a commitment that the heads of a Bill will be drafted before the summer break. I ask him to try to speed that up because it would be important to get that legislative process moving before the summer recess. I would hate to see it drag on into the autumn and into the budgetary cycle and all sorts of other priorities. We have waited for the MPA legislation for a long time. The issues we are discussing in terms of the marine, fisheries and healthy oceans are all interconnected. We know there are positive spillover effects from MPAs in terms of fish stocks. Reference has been made to the fact that there is perhaps an opportunity for fishers to be involved in monitoring programmes in terms of the health of ecosystems, such as the restoration of sea-grasses and marine ecosystems. Perhaps there is an opportunity, through the MPA LIFE project, which I mentioned, for fishers to be centrally involved and not have fishing vessels tied up when they could be used in an important way. I ask the Minister of State to take that with him and consider the opportunity that may exist in the MPA legislation. We know important work is ongoing. I will not say that nothing is happening; quite a lot is happening, and I appreciate that. I ask that the Minister of State take those points away. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-04/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-02-04