Section 69(8)(a) and (b) of the Inland Fisheries Act 2010 sets out the requirements for the making of a notice in respect of the Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme Regulations and the Department and I are undertaking this public consultation in accordance with those requirements.
The Technical Expert Group on Salmon (TEGOS) present the salmon advice regarding the scientific assessment of salmon stocks in Irish rivers annually to Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) for a forthcoming season as soon as the advice becomes available. The earliest possible date this occurs is generally the first or second week of November as the advice is dependent on average catch data taken from the most recent five years of catch data and fish counters' data. As the season runs to 30 September for the majority of the rivers, the salmon advice is generated by TEGOS in October before being presented to IFI.
IFI then review and forward their recommendations on the catch options for the forthcoming season after receipt of the TEGOS advice. When the IFI recommendations are received in the Department, this initiates the start of the 30-day statutory public consultation process for the draft Regulations. The generation of the Appropriate Assessment Screening (AAS) is dependent on the TEGOS Advice and the IFI Salmon Catch Advice as this scientific data forms the basis of the AAS. The AAS is prepared independently of IFI and once generated is sent for review to an independent external consultant.
The AAS can take several weeks to generate after TEGOS advice and IFI recommendations are finalised, therefore it is not possible, given time constraints, to publish the AAS along with the draft Wild Salmon and Sea Trout Tagging Scheme (Amendment) Regulations. To do so would delay the statutory public consultation process which would jeopardise the completion of Regulations in advance of the opening of the season on 1 January each year.
