Minutes of Proceedings

The meeting opened, in private, at 10:25am

1. Chairperson's business

1.1 The Chairperson reminded members of the visit on 14 December to Dublin to meet with the Joint Committee on Tourism, Sport and Recreation.

Agreed - that if any member scheduled to attend the meeting finds that they are unable to do so they should notify the Committee Clerk as soon as possible.

1.2 The Chairperson advised members that Boston College has invited a delegation of 8-10 members to visit Boston before the end of March 2001 as part of the Committee's work on its inquiry into the Arts.

Agreed - that all members of the Committee should be invited and that they would continue to liaise with Boston College.

2. Minutes of the last meeting

2.1 The minutes of the meetings of 22 November and 4 December were agreed.

3. Matters arising

3.1 The Committee Clerk reported that there had been no response from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board to the Committee's letter of 24 November seeking information in respect of what is being done to promote angling as a tourist attraction and asking for copies of what is currently available to promote the angling scene in Northern Ireland. The Committee Clerk was able to report that the Department supplied the Tourist Board with a disk that the Board used as a basis for designing publicity material.

Agreed -that the Committee would consider this issue further when examples were received.

3.2 The Committee discussed the Department's letter of 17 November which provided information on the DCAL/DARD division of responsibility for inland fisheries.

4. Any other business

4.1 Agreed - that the Committee would meet with the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action on Wednesday 17 January 2001.

Mr Shannon joined the meeting at 10.47am

5. Report on Inland Fisheries in N.I.- Presentation by Specialist Adviser Dr I Winfield

5.1 The Committee discussed the Report and agreed that a paragraph needed to be inserted to reflect clearly that 76 submissions were received and that a sampling procedure was applied, taking account of geographical and different interests, to select those groups or individuals who would be called to give oral evidence before the Committee.

Mrs Nelis joined the meeting at 11:00am

Dr Adamson left the meeting at 11:12am

Mr Agnew joined the meeting at 11:35am

5.2 The Committee was informed by Dr Winfield of the dangers to the biodiversity of a river by engineering the passage of fish over waterfalls.

Agreed - that the Committee would write to Lough Melvin Anglers advising of the problems that may be created by opening up new stretches of river by the engineering of waterfalls to salmon and other fish such as the gillaroo and the sonaghan.

Mr McCarthy left the meeting at 12:24pm

Mr Shannon left the meeting at 12:38pm

Mrs Nelis left the meeting at 12:50pm

The meeting adjourned at 12:50pm and resumed at 1:23pm

Mr Agnew left the meeting at 2:30pm

Mrs Nelis rejoined the meeting at 2:30pm

5.3 The Committee continued to discuss the contents of the Report and to suggest changes.

5.4 The Committee was advised during the meeting that carp have been introduced to McNeill's Pond.

Agreed - that the Committee would write to the Minister on this matter.

6. Date of next meeting

6.1 The next meeting of the committee will take place on Monday 11 December at 12noon in Room 152.

The meeting closed at 4pm.

Mr E ONeill
(Chairperson)