FISSTA gives a guarded welcome to Minister Fahey's lifting of the angling ban to take effect from next Friday 23rd March.

The Chairman of FISSTA had already written to President of the IFA Tom Parlon assuring him that should the ban be lifted, it should be subject to sensible and adequate precautions being taken to protect our disease free status and continue full support for our farmers. FISSTA are very pleased to acknowledge the appreciation expressed to us by the farming community at this very worrying time.

However, our vigilance must continue in our return to normality. FISSTA now advise all their club affilliates to make each decision of opening their fisheries on a local basis after close consultation/or liaison with the local IFA representative to ensure all precautions are put in place to prevent the FMD spread. In some cases, if deemed essential, the local club/fishery and IFA person may collectively decide to continue closure of a dangerous section of river (ie. where a farmer advises) or instruct anglers to take additional precautions above the norm. In some cases local anglers may refrain from fishing altogether and only allow the tourist to fish so that the local hotels and b&B businesses can continue to limit the mounting job losses at this crucial time.

This announcement by the Minister will allow the resumption of our valuable and hard won angling tourism business and most importantly help send a clear message abroad to other countries that we are not infected with FMD. We must dispel the impression that many believe we are infected and that is why we are closing down the fisheries.

FISSTA thank the Minister for his kind comments on our strong response and cooperation to his appeal during the very serious threat which Foot and Mouth disease presented.

FISSTA welcomes the appointment of Joey Murrin as the new Chairman of the National Salmon Commission. It is almost a year since the establishment of the NSC and
to date no progress on some very urgent objectives have yet to be deliberated on by the members. The backlog of work should be cleared by the Minister so that the new Chairman can get maximum progress from the first meeting. While many of our members are concerned that a commercial fisherman representative gets such a key post to decide on the conservation of the salmon, the sole FISSTA NSC representative advises that Mr Murrin will have conservation as a priority. We shall wait and see how long it will take for quotas to be fixed on commercial nets - the reason the NSC was formed as the legislation informs us, but we have yet to see it in a press release from the Dept.
From past experience Joey Murrin is only too familiar with such legislative amnesia. We wish Joey Murrin a fair wind and a successful tenure for the good of the salmon and sea trout.