Sir, – There are many issues raised by John McManus in his article which deals, inter alia, with the proposed Galway Bay salmon (Business, March 25th) with which I could contend but I will confine myself to one: the role of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine. McManus holds that it is wrong that “Coveney is meant to be an honest broker” in the case.
That argument might hold if it were not for the small detail that, under the 1997 Fisheries Act, the Minister is adjudicating on whether aquaculture and foreshore licences should be issued to Bord Iascaigh Mhara.
Your readers may recall that after the Tory/Lib Dem coalition came to power in England the secretary of state for trade and industry, Vince Cable, had his quasi-judicial role in relation to the News International takeover of BskyB transferred to another cabinet member because he had expressed opposition to the takeover while in opposition. It is not unreasonable that in Ireland we might adopt a similar approach and that that someone other than Simon Coveney might be asked to decide which of the competing arguments of Inland Fisheries Ireland and Bord Iascaigh Mhara should trump the other in a piece of joined-up government in the Galway Bay case. – Yours, etc,
NIALL GREENE,
Chair,
Salmon Watch Ireland,
Lisnagry,
Co Limerick.