17/04/03
 IPS PRESS
RELEASE STATEMENT
FROM IPS COMMITTEE
ON THE SHANNON BOARD PERMIT
The
IPS deplores the insensitivity of the Shannon Regional Fisheries Board in deciding
to impose a permit fee on coarse and pike anglers on it's so-called "managed
waters". The fact that there is virtually no "management" (apart
from the wholesale slaughter of pike and coarse fish on the board's trout waters
!) makes this decision all the more baffling and shows how out of touch Eamon
Cusack and his board are with ordinary anglers. We now have the bizarre situation
where a statutory body, funded by the taxpayer, is attempting to charge anglers
for the privilege of angling on some waters (e.g. Rivers Suck, Inny) whilst they
provide exactly the same "management" on waters they do not have historical
leases on (e.g. River Shannon) where no-one has to pay ! This
arbitrary levy has the effect of disadvantaging tourist providers in some areas
and confusing further the overseas visitor. This new policy amounts to angling
apartheid and we will vigourously oppose its imposition as yet another example
of the lack of joined-up thinking in Ireland's increasingly impoverished fisheries
management service. However we will not
call on members to boycott the list of 27 fisheries. Ireland's tourist angling
sector has seen a 50% reduction in visitor numbers since 1997 despite the spending
of ¤10's of millions by the State of EU Structural Funds under the Tourist
Angling Measure (TAM). Some angling operators are teetering on-the-brink and an
orchestrated boycott could well push them over the edge. Many of these people
are our friends and members are we have a responsibility to help their interests. We
will however continue our efforts to expose and overturn this ill-advised "rod
licence" as the sham that it has become. The Shannon Regional Fisheries Board
manages the biggest fisheries region in the State. Most of it's waters are coarse
/ pike fisheries. Most are free to native and visitor alike. The sad facts are
that the SHRFB spends the vast bulk of it's revenue on a handful of trout fisheries
where they employ outmoded and ill-advised schemes to destroy pike and coarse
fish. Meanwhile our coarse fisheries, those that attract most overseas visitors,
go largely unpoliced, are being poached beyond belief and are slowly being polluted
beyond recovery. The SHRFB are supposed to protect our fish stocks. It would seem
they are happy to do so, but only if they are trout or salmon. | 
NEWS