The Galway Bay Against Salmon Cages has vowed to keep putting the pressure on Government to halt any plans for a Galway Bay Salmon Fish Farm with campaign members to descend on the constituency office of An Taoiseach Enda Kenny in Castlebar this Saturday.
A bus is to depart from the Dyke Road car park in Galway city on April 27 at 11am, picking up in Tuam along the way, with the mission of bringing eager placard carrying campaigners to Enda Kenny’s office in Church Street for the rally which is planned to start at 2pm.
This is part of a nationwide campaign, organised by the Federation of Irish Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers, and it is expected that delegations sent by 90 clubs from the around the country will take part in the rally bringing the number of campaigners on the day to between 300 and 400 people.
Speaking ahead of the rally, rally organiser Billy Smyth explained: “This is a follow up to the Galway protest that was held on March 2. There was also a protest at Carrigaline in County Cork at Christmas at the office of the Minister for the Marine, Simon Coveney. This is the next rally for putting pressure on the Government.
“The campaign is going very well so far, we’ve received a lot of support. Galway County Council and Galway City Council have both recently passed an unanimous motion expressing concern over the proposed plans. We had a stall out on Shop Street five Saturdays, for about five hours, and we received 3,000 signatures of support from the general public. There are so many ordinary Galwegians who are opposed to this farm in Galway Bay.”
Referring to recent information supplied by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Mr Smyth further explained that many fish producers are sending farmed salmon to Scotland to be processed and returned into the country because it’s a better deal for them. The campaign group has criticised this because it goes against claims by BIM that the fish farm in Galway Bay has the potential to create 500 jobs. “It ruins their whole argument because they can’t guarantee the fish will be farmed in Ireland at all,” said Mr Smyth, who added that the proposals for the farm are currently being reviewed by Minister Coveney. The campaign group hope that this weekend’s rally will put pressure on the minister to make what they strongly believe is the “right decision” to not grant approval for the farm.
Anyone interesting in taking part in the rally and booking a seat on the bus can phone Mr Smyth on 086 3511628.
