asked the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry if his Department monitor the damage caused by seals to other species of fish, particularly salmon; and if any plans are in hand to deal with this serious problem.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Monitoring of damage caused by seals to salmon is being carried out by my Department on an on-going basis. While seals are a protected species under the Wildlife Act, 1976, I am prepared, where seals are causing damage to a fishery, to consider an application under the Act from the fishermen concerned for permission to dispose of the seals by a specified method.

First of all, I want to point out that I had this question on the Order Paper before the recent controversy cropped up about something alleged to have taken place in Mayo. Would the Minister agree that there is at the moment no definite arrangement by his Department to ensure that there is a proper culling of seals and that they are causing considerable damage, particularly to the salmon? Would he accept that in this recent salmon season fishermen had the experience of losing more than half the catch through damage by seals?

(Cavan-Monaghan): As the Deputy knows, under the Wildlife Act seals are a protected species.

Some seals.

(Cavan-Monaghan): I can issue licences to people to cull or to destroy seals and I am prepared to do that subject to conditions which will ensure that the seals are put down in a humane way. I will be answering other questions later on about the seals but I have not received any applications this year from fishermen or others for licences to kill seals. If I had received such applications I would have considered them and, where necessary, granted them subject to conditions that would ensure that the seals were destroyed in a humane way.

The Minister stated that the matter of culling seals was being dealt with in an ongoing manner.

(Cavan-Monaghan): No, I did not. To begin with, they are not words that I use, so I know I did not.

Will the Minister state exactly what his Department are doing?

(Cavan-Monaghan): It is not the duty of the Department of Fisheries and Forestry to cull seals. That is not to say that the Department could not do it. But it is the duty of the Department to issue licences to fishermen and other people who want to destroy seals in the interest of fisheries. I agree that seals do damage to salmon and that this is quite a frequent occurrence.

Whose duty is it to cull seals?

(Cavan-Monaghan): The Department of Fisheries can cull them but I would like fishermen to interest themselves in doing this because it is very much in their interests, if there are too many seals, to cull them. I am not saying it is their duty to do it; it is an exercise in which they might interest themselves. But if they do it they should do it in consultation with and under licence from my Department and do it in a humane and painless way.

I would like to ask one more question.

I am sorry, I have allowed enough questions.

It is important.