Federation of Irish Salmon & Sea Trout Anglers

06/04/2026

It is hard to believe that salmon farming and Marine Institute are still trying to spin the lies on pharmed salmon. In case you doubt it, I give you the screenshots to confirm that the producers of these programmes have no respect for our intelligence.
Tonight there was a repeat of a TG4 programme from Carna in Conamara presented by RnG Aine Ní Bhreislean from Gaoth Dobhar. The items covered were of heritage origin but first up she visited a Marine Institute salmon farming research project in Leitheanach. It looked interesting enough until Macdara O’ Cuaig, started speaking assisted with a lot more O’Cuaig’s in the credits including Cathal as director. He explained what the project funded by state and Foras na Mara or Marine Institute was designed to measure the impact of aquaculture ie shellfish and salmon on the marine. He then demonstrated how he fed scoops of pesticide filled pellets to 4,000 salmon in a cage. He cited a confusing project name called “integrated multi throphic aquaculture” for mixing sea urchins, salmon, seaweed and scallops together to learn how they perform. But when he explained that the farmed salmon waste left to decay on the sea bed, (not mentioning the word sealice in any sentence) fertilised the seaweed and scallops then we knew it was another propaganda programme that the DAFM - Dept of Agriculture, Food and Marine and the Marine institute have been so good at down the years. In fairness, knowing how devastating this pharmed industry is from her Donegal radio experience, Aine, posed the question of acceptance by the community which O’Cuaig dismissed by stating that it was all locals working on this project. This was yet another attempt by state funded bodies to promote their own financial gain and government policy at the expense of the lovely Galway Bay which they should have more respect for as we see the decline every season on our water quality. Maybe, it’s time for TG4 to highlight our side of the story in right of reply.

04/04/2026

A predation management programme is urgently needed to identify and agree a plan to keep each native species in sustainable numbers. Mayo has a plan to halt the decline in salmon populations.

https://www.con-telegraph.ie/2026/04/04/plans-to-address-impact-of-decline-in-salmon-fishing-on-mayos-river-moy-taking-shape/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAQ-UQxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEev_PsU1lvxmjmBY6CxsZNyuGJeRMKpb5wHkzr5PZJ1NRT4Fm_BGk_iSvwg0Y_aem_ycmtuKTg_R3D_QSHgkJytw =1775320504

A Mayo Oireachtas member has welcomed plans for a breeding cormorant survey on the Moy catchment area, including Lough Conn and Lough Cullin, to assess their impact on the decline of salmon in the River Moy.

26/03/2026

Today the Public Accounts Committee in Leinster House sat to scrutinise Inland Fisheries Ireland. Chairman Tom Collins apologised for failures to find polluters to the waterways such as the Boyne that has practically died and that Irish people have become desensitised to environmental concerns and then talked in mathematical ratios that confused his audience. But pac member stated “IFI has taken far too much time of this PAC” said FG TD Grace Boland.

Oireachtas Video on Demand live streams – Houses of the Oireachtas

The PAC heard that the contract of Former CEO of IFI Francis O’Donnell was terminated from Inland Fisheries Ireland in June 2025. He has since taken an unfair dismissal case against the organisation to the WRC, where he has alleged he was blackmailed by a sitting senator in a bid to have him reinstate a senior official at IFI whom he had suspended.

IFI has been without a full-time chief executive for the past two years, although a new chief executive, Dr Eamonn Kelly, who worked with top Dept officials on AN BORD PLEANALA is due to take up his appointment later this month.

Mr McCarthy OF CNAG further told the committee a second WRC case was now outstanding, taken by the driver of an IFI vehicle involved in a road accident in 2021, with that vehicle subsequently found to have been uninsured.

He noted the accident cost the organisation €205,000 in legal and repair fees.

He added a further legal fees of €277,000 to date had been incurred by IFI as a result of a series of failed prosecutions it had taken, with those cases withdrawn when it emerged they had been incorrectly delegated to IFI officials.

He added further that IFI had incurred expenditure of €717,000 in 2024 relating to non-compliant procurement, that is expenditure on services conducted without a public tender process. Barry Fox IfI told PAC Chairman Brady that they had the authority to prosecute in the Gweebarra case which will be much to the astonishment of anglers in Donegal.

Mr McCarthy said it was “regrettable to have to continue to report in this way” but said it was necessary to do so in order to ensure IFI “bottoms out these governance and control issues, and takes the necessary steps to avoid any re-occurrence".

10:30am
C&AG Special Report: 118 - C&AG Special Report 118 – Governance, internal control and value for money issues in Inland Fisheries Ireland

Financial Statements 2023 - Inland Fisheries Ireland

Financial Statements 2024: Inland Fisheries Ireland

Opening Statements and Briefing Documents
- Professor Tom Collins, Chair, Inland Fisheries Ireland
- Mr. Barry Fox, Deputy CEO, Inland Fisheries Ireland
- Ms. Suzanne Campion, Head of Finance & Corporate Services, Inland Fisheries Ireland
- Mr. John McPhillips, Contract HR Lead, Inland Fisheries Ireland
- Mr. Seamus McCarthy, Comptroller and Auditor General, Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
- Ms. Georgina O'Mahony, Deputy Director of Audit, Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General
- Ms. Oonagh Buckley, Secretary General, Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
- Ms. Martina Hennessy, Assistant Secretary General, Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
- Mr. Gary Martin, Principal Officer, Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment
- Mr. Jim Whelan, Principal Officer, Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.

Below. Ms. Oonagh Buckley, Secretary General, Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment

26/03/2026

Serious scrutiny of Irish fish farms need to be policed due to the native strain of our wild fish. The fish in this case in Wales in fact appear to be farmed rainbow trout, which are frequently stocked in commercial fisheries for angling. It is possible these fish have escaped from a local fishery or a fish rearing facility, although at this stage we do not know which one.
“The fin irregularities visible in the images are characteristic of stocked trout and suggest the fish will not have travelled far from their point of release

https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/angling-free-all-shoals-farm-33661249?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwZnRzaAQx_yFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAo2NjI4NTY4Mzc5AAEevPOKBctSQ9hvwLstdJypIze40W_SNeqDQ9QommsoNu79Qgy9t4pcXXObVBY_aem_cFstjEJb0ysXCD8_farJJw =1774521643

There is concern the fish could swim up rivers and damage native stocks

26/03/2026

Today at the Public Accounts Committee session on Inland Fisheries Ireland her phone rang and Oonagh Buckley Secretary General of DCEE stated that it was the Minister who had forgotten she was in Leinster House this morning. Wonder which minister? Was this Timmy Dooley or Daragh O’ Brien that showed they didn’t seem to think the PAC was important in their day of work. Crazy stuff in which Ifi are on the rack once again.

23/03/2026

Now here is food for thought if DAERA can get £4.5m Lottery funding under Life Raft project to eradicate ferrets from Rathlin Island to protect sea birds - making those lovely wee ferrets homeless. Is there a predation programme for seal or cormorant populations somewhere.

Invasive species removed from Rathlin Island to protect Northern Ireland’s largest seabird colony – The Irish News

Sophie Clarke reports from Rathlin Island, where a landmark conservation project has seen the island declared ‘ferret-free’

19/03/2026

Three men ‘not bred for fishing’ fined for illegally catching single 60cm salmon
Inland Fisheries Ireland officers carried out night-time surveillance operation at Cahercon, Co Clare

Judge Valerie Corcoran imposed fines on three accused arising from a surveillance operation carried out by officers at Inland Fisheries Ireland at the River Shannon at Cahercon (pictured), Co Clare on June 17th last. Photograph: Google Street View
Gordon Deegan

Thu Mar 19 2026.
Three men have been hit with cumulative fines of €1,275 concerning the possession of one unlawfully captured 60cm-long “fine salmon” in waters at the River Shannon in June of last year.
At Ennis District Court, Judge Valerie Corcoran imposed the fines on the three accused arising from a night-time surveillance operation carried out by officers at Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI) at the River Shannon at Cahercon, Co Clare on June 17th last.
In court, Corcoran queried why the three had caught only one salmon with a 60-metre long net they had placed in the water, and in response, IFI fisheries officer Bill Keane told the court “you are doing well to catch one these days”.Keane said that catching salmon on the River Shannon is completely outlawed due to the conservation status of the species.
Keane said every salmon that is unlawfully taken “is potentially wiping out thousands of future salmon. Every salmon is important.”The Corofin-based IFI officer said the fish caught by the net was “a fine salmon”, measuring 60cm.

Keane said that on the night, after the salmon was caught, he heard one of the men comment, “this is a good one”.Keane said that if there had been plenty of salmon in the river, they would have been caught by the net the men had put in place.All three, with Co Clare addresses – John Beirne of Maigh Dara, Quin; Kevin Murphy of The Square, Kildysart and Gary Walsh of King’s Road, Kildysart, pleaded guilty to having in their possession an unlawfully captured single salmon on June 17th last at Cahercon, contrary to Section 182 of the Fisheries Consolidation Act.A photo of the salmon was handed into court for Corcoran to view. Corcoran imposed a €400 fine on each and an additional €25 each for the salmon.Corcoran said that taking into account that only one salmon was caught, “I don’t think these men were bred for fishing”. She said what occurred “was a serious issue and needs to be taken seriously” due to declining salmon numbers.The height of the prosecution case was that the three were chancing their arm, Corcoran said.
The judge said the three “were not particularly industrious” in their actions on the night, and that she was taking into account the early pleas of guilty. She said the three are middle-aged men “and it looks like they will never make a stupid mistake like this again”.Solicitor Daragh Hassett, for the three, said all three are working and have family and obligations.Hassett said they had been working in the area at the Cahercon Old Convent estate, and “had time on their hands, and put the net into water”.

Inland Fisheries Ireland officers carried out night-time surveillance operation at Cahercon, Co Clare

19/03/2026

Both deserve Oscars as if they were concerned about selling our resource to big bucks and then saying it was a private deal. Please read and share this absolute charade and exchange between one former junior minister Sean Kyne and the present Junior Minister who still refuse to divulge the price of selling their state seaweed rights to a foreign multinational Arcadia as they try and carve up the Arramara Teo assets in Galway and Donegal. No wonder Sean Kyne lost his Dail seat after his performance as Minister and continued his embarrassing record at the expense of our fisheries in the Seanad. By your deeds you will be judged. Publish the sale agreement now to see who sold our nations rights to the buyer.

14/03/2026

Is there no end to the amount of Irish restaurants that still put pharmed salmon on their menu at the expense of their customers health. Furthermore, why do those that know better not ask the waiting staff why they are still trying to give their precious diners this toxic food. So over to the clients to object to this disgusting treatment and practice they were showing regard for their valued customers at last. Thank you to all who asked us to highlight the good guys who refuse to offer unsustainable farmed salmon. Maybe we should start publishing the pharmed salmon restaurants or better still the ones that refuse to put toxic food on their menu. Proper chefs please copy.

13/03/2026

Minister Dooley took time to visit some of the many dams from the Rockies on the Bow river to learn how they’ve reduced this once great fishery to a put and take trout angling water. It is good for a minister with a hydro in his constituency to explore other experiences and learn from their mistakes. The blocking of the wild Atlantic salmon on the majestic Shannon at Ardnacrusha while visionary nearly 100 years ago was the death knell of the angling tourism industry right up to Carrick on Shannon and the Erne at Ballyshannon that sadly was not replaced with another alternative. Perhaps we will be asked to a fisheries meeting to hear if his new ideas to get salmon back up the Shannon once again.

11/03/2026

FISSTA AND COLLEAGUES HAVE CONSISTENTLY CAMPAIGNED AND OPPOSED ALL SALMON FARMING APPLICATIONS TO KEEP OUR WILD ATLANTIC SALMON HABITATS PRISTINE.
At this juncture we say Thank you to our Solicitor Brian Harrington and his legal team, Margaret Heavey BL and Oisin Collins SC for taking our case against ALAB Aquaculture Licenses Appeals Board in respect of Mowi operations at the Deenish Co Kerry site which ALAB conceded in the High Court this week. Their case is listed before the High Court again on 8th June to consider the question of whether a Remittal of the Mowi application back to ALAB is appropriate.

Thanks to FIE - Friends of the Irish Environment and GBASC -Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages for taking judicial reviews against this ALAB decision, along with the continuing support of NARA and NGO colleagues.

Onwards and Upwards. More information will be made available soon.