Inland Fisheries Ireland, through its newly announced national barriers programme, is addressing the issue of water quality and particularly in reference to hydromorphological impacts as outlined in Ireland’s third cycle of the river basin management plan. Government funding of €110 million has been approved for this initiative to remove, mitigate and where possible lessen the ecological impact of river barriers on migrating and resident fish species. This is critically important for Atlantic salmon, European eels and lamprey. European eel numbers have fallen dramatically and wild salmon numbers returning to Ireland have dropped from 1.7 million in 1975 to just over 170,000 in 2022. This is a catastrophic decline in less than one generation. More on the Oireachtais Web Site
