Raising money for the State by imposing a rod licence on anglers could “reignite the rod licence war”, which proved a highly bitter and controversial issue in the late eighties.
This is the message fishermen in Galway have delivered to Labour Galway West TD Derek Nolan, but Dep Nolan said there is “no possibility” of a licence being introduced, a statement that was echoed by the Minister of State at the Department of the Environment Fergus O’Dowd, who said “there was no way a rod licence would be acceptable”.
Minister O’Dowd is in the process of updating the Inland Fisheries Act and has been holding briefings with TDs in Leinster House, as well as undergoing a public consultation process. Part of this process involved the question of how funding could be raised and there were diverse views on the matter.
Dep Nolan said a proposal for a licence “is now not being considered” by Minister O’Dowd. The Galway TD said “rod licences are a thing of the past and there is no possibility of the rod war of the late 1980s returning in 2014”.
