A court action has been initiated by a Lough Derg-based company which is seeking a declaration that the ESB has failed to comply with their statutory obligations to maintain the Shannon fisheries.
The Shannon Fisheries Preservation and Development Company is also seeking an order directing the ESB to comply with their duties under the Shannon Fisheries Act of 1935.
The Act was passed shortly after the completion of the first State-owned electricity generation station at Ardnacrusha. It provides the ESB with the statutory responsibility of "managing, conducting, and preserving" the Shannon fisheries.
The plaintiff company, which is three years old, is representative of more than 2,000 anglers who are members of fishing clubs on the Shannon and its lakes.
Two of its directors, Mr Kevin Grimes and Mr Bernard Chadwick, are also on the committee of the newly formed Save Our Lough Derg (SOLD) campaign, which, together with the Save Our Lough Ree (SOLR) group, is promoting an environmentally-friendly action programme on the waterway.
In the action against the ESB, the Shannon fisheries preservation company won an important victory when Judge Philip O'Sullivan ruled in the High Court that it had locus standi, or the right to pursue the claim.
It must now raise €95,000 as security of costs.
The company is claiming the ESB has failed to comply with its responsibility, "with the result that the levels of fish in the River Shannon catchment area have declined significantly since the date the statutory duty was first composed".
The ESB is defending the action, denying it has failed to perform its management and preservation duty and that if there has been any deterioration in fish stocks or water quality, it has not been caused by a breach of its duty.
In a motion it brought to the High Court last year seeking to have the proceedings struck out, the ESB stated the claim was frivolous and vexatious and that no reasonable cause of action was disclosed.
According to Judge Philip O'Sullivan, in a written judgment, the ESB had also "submitted forcefully" that the plaintiff company did not have locus standi, meaning a right to appear and be heard before the court.
Judge O'Sullivan, in citing the case of Lancefort, a conservationist company which failed to be granted locus standi in an action it took against Treasury Holdings, a Dublin property company, in 1997, said "a very real and substantial environmental issue" was being raised. Granting locus standi, he said the company was supported by more than 2,000 individuals with a long history of environmental involvement and issues raised in the case.
As an alternative measure, the ESB also sought and was granted security of costs in the event that the plaintiff has costs awarded against it. There is now a stay on all proceedings until security of €95,000 is furnished.
In their statement of claim, the anglers say that salmon levels are about 5 per cent of what they were in 1935, trout at 10 per cent and eels at 4 per cent.
"The failure to carry out works of fishing protection and development including proper pollution control, habitat conservation and fishery protection duties is in breach of the expressed statutory duty," the anglers claim in their statement