Sir, - If your correspondent Mark Helm ore is correct in his belief that the new fisheries Amendment Bill 1996 (Aquaculture) will empower our politicians to grant large areas of the seas around our coast to salmon farming companies and to license cages in privately owned lakes, without the owner's permission then it is indeed a very serious matter.
Already a Norwegian owned company has a complete monopoly of Mulroy Bay in Co Donegal and this once magnificently beautiful bay is now littered with fish cages and rafts, some of which have little huts on them. The same company now covets Lough Swilly and shows scant concern for those who have traditionally used it for fishing, boating, swimming and other lawful activities.
Is the time coming when our politicians will cede Galway Bay to Spain, Bantry Bay to Germany, Clew Bay to France and Donegal Bay to Portugal and will we natives be excluded from using these coastlines and waters? The new owners will probably be given Irish passports and will, no doubt be encouraged to build mansions in the area, or at least to build substantial extensions to existing mansions.
Our politicians should remember that we elected them and we pay them, some would say overpay, to protect our interests and our heritage. Ireland and the seas surrounding it belong to all of us and none of it is in the gift of any politician. - Yours, etc.,
Ard na Mara, Malahide,
Co Dublin.