State bodies are failing in their responsibility to manage freshwater lakes and rivers for the maximum national benefit, a value-for-money study shows. The report by the Comptroller and Auditor General highlights "poor planning" in the overall management of inland fisheries by the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources and fisheries boards.
The shortcomings include failure to promote activities such as angling which bring in considerable revenue, and inefficiencies in investigating pollution incidents and monitoring water quality.
The bodies also failed to implement most of the recommendations in independent studies in 1994 and 1996 on how to resolve organisational and management deficiencies.
The Department has overall responsibility for managing inland fisheries, which include about 357,000 acres of freshwater lakes and 8,600 miles of main channel rivers. It also manages certain sea activities including commercial fishing for salmon and sea trout and sea angling.
Management responsibilities include protecting inland fisheries from illegal fishing, monitoring water quality and promoting angling in Ireland and overseas.
The Central Fisheries Board, (CFB) which operates under the Department, provides specialist services and co-ordinates the activities of the seven regional fisheries boards.
The CFB and regional boards spent £12.8 million in 1995. Four-fifths of the funding came from the Government and the European Union and the rest was provided from their own resources.
Mr John Purcell's report, which was presented to the Dail yesterday, said there was "abundant evidence of the dedicated approach of those involved in the management of inland fisheries". However, the quality of planning was "poor at all levels".
Despite legal obligations on all fisheries boards to prepare five-year development programmes, the CFB and four of the regional boards did not have one. The roles of the Department, the CFB and the regional boards needed to be redefined. Five of the seven RFBs had not issued audit reports on their annual accounts for 1995 by May 1997. And by the same date the Southern Regional Fisheries Board had not issued an audit report on its annual accounts for 1993 to 1995. The report found "significant duplication" between the RFBs and local authorities in monitoring and investigating water quality and initiating prosecutions or giving advice or warnings. The amount of seriously polluted waters had declined but the amount of moderately polluted waters has increased.
Some 152,000 overseas visitors spent around £53 million in angling in Ireland in 1995 and around 19,000 domestic anglers spent £27 million on fishing activities in 1996.