Secretary's Report 2006/7

 

SECRETARYS REPORT 2006.

The year that has just ended will stand out as the one in which no full committee meetings were held. The Chairman called a small number of meetings but there was not the required attendance to make up a quorum at any of them and so the business of the NCFFI was carried on by the executive.

While the NCFFI was able to carry out its business regardless, it is not a healthy situation where persons who allow their names to go forward for the Committee at the AGM, then fail to turn up for Committee Meetings. The Federation simply cannot carry on without personnel to meet and make decisions about the day to day running of the organisation. The Federation needs dedicated people to take an interest in its affairs. In this, I have to admit that I am in the same position as everybody else and, for the first year since the NCFFI was founded, I have not, for reasons connected with my absence from home for a long period and to some health problems which have now been dealt with, been able to attend most of the meetings. I would appeal to people with a genuine wish to contribute to the work of the Federation to come forward for election to the committee and, when elected, make an honest effort to attend meetings. The clubs expect the Federation to carry out an amount of work, but this is not possible without attendance at meetings.

The year past also saw the resignation of two office holders due to pressure of work and I want to thank both for their valuable contributions during their time in office. I am speaking of the Senior Team Manager, Dave McNiece and the PRO., Gus Greene. The Team Manager's post was ably filled by Bobby Smithers, but the post of PRO is still vacant. In this connection, I must bring to your attention that no one from Northern Ireland has been on the committee for some years now, nor had we a representative from the Ulster Provincial Council. This is a loss to the committee, as there are many able and dedicated anglers in the Province of Ulster, North and South, and it is time that they were once again active on the committee. Anglers from Northern Ireland took their places on the committee and made very valuable contributions to the organisation during the darkest days there and they were always made welcome here. The Federation is always keen to have representation from all over Ireland, North, South, East and West. It would be a sad day if political lines placed boundaries on our sport, that would be a very retrograde step.

It is my very sad duty to report the recent untimely death of our popular Vice-Chairman, Martin Carolan. Martin and his charming wife, Doreen, were active in the sport of coarse fishing in the Drogheda area for some time and they were both present at an AGM some years ago when Martin was elected to the post of Vice-Chairman. Martin filled this post with much enthusiasm and immediately infected both the Federation and the Drogheda Club with his good humour and spirit of enterprise. He was given the task of organising the events for juniors, whom he regarded as the anglers of the future. He threw himself whole-heartedly into the task of organising the events for the juniors at Federation level and building a strong club in the Drogheda region. He was a breath or fresh air on the committee. Despite his ill health, he always had an optimistic outlook and carried on as best he could during his illness which lasted eighteen months. He was the principal organiser of Junior Canals Championship held in Drogheda last summer and contributed a lot of hard work before and during that event. He will be sadly missed by his colleagues on the committee and by the Leinster Federation and he has certainly left a gap in all our lives. I attended his funeral in St. Peters Church in Drogheda on behalf of the Federation in the unavoidable absence of Dave Egan. Brian O'Donnoghue represented the Leinster Federation. The Church was packed to capacity for the ceremony which was a tribute to his popularity in his home town. I would like to send condolences from all of the Federation to his wife, Doreen and to all of his family.

The Healys All Ireland Open Championship was fished on Lough Oughter last July where it was hosted by the Killeshandra Angling Club. The Championship attracted approximately 200 entrants and the fishing was quite good with very few dry nets. The 2007 Championship has also been fixed for the same venue and the same hosts. The sponsorship from the Healy Group run out this year. We wish to thank the Healy Group for their generosity over the years of the sponsorship and to wish them well in the future. The Federation now requests the assistance of all the members in securing a new sponsor for 2008 and onward. If anyone has any ideas, I would ask them to please contact the Chairman at 087 2690886.

The Drogheda Club organised the Drogheda Canals Championship an the end of the summer. The late Martin Carolan put a huge amount of effort into this match and its success is a tribute to their efforts. I have spoken to a few members of the Drogheda Club and Lhave been told that they intend to carry on the good work in the club started by Martin .

I have had a piece of good news from the Chairman who has advised me that a number of clubs who had lapsed their membership of the Federation have either now re-joined for 2007 or have given a strong indication that they will re-join and that the Federation will have an increased membership in the coming year. This is indeed good news as a strong Federation is required to face down the many threats coming from sources such as pollution, lack of access, illegal fishing, the activities of jet skis operators and the Federations lack of representation on some Statutory Bodies. At this period last year, the big topic of conversation was the re-organisation of the Regional Fisheries Boards. The first Report on this drew many complaints and comments from all of the fishing disciplines, the NCFFI included. There were many letters written to the Department concerned and one cannot help but get the feeling that the Minister did not anticipate the strong feelings which the Report evoked. The last communication received from the Department said that the same team which brought out the first Report had been retained to look into the matters raised and to bring out proposals for a follow on to the Report. Since then, there has Been silence on the matter and nothing further has emerged. I would forecast that the manure will hit the fan again after the forthcoming elections but, until then, we will hear absolutely nothing. There is no doubt that the Federation lost outto a very large extent through lack of any representation on six of the seven Regional Fisheries Boards with the result that decisions relating to coarse fishing were taken in these Board areas by persons who had no experience of or indeed no interest in the sport. The Federation would need strong representation in all areas of Ireland so that its representatives are in a position to take coarse fishing places on any new bodies which may emerge. I wish to acknowledge the co-operation received from members of NARA and TAFI on this matter. No doubt, it is not the last time that we will have to get our heads together on this subject.

While on the subject of co-operation with other fishing disciplines, I want to report the Federations continued membership of the Angling Council of Ireland and to announce that the Council now consists of five member federations. These are: The Trout Angling Federation of Ireland, The Irish Federation of Sea Anglers, The National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland, The Irish Federation of Pike Angling Clubs, The Federation of Salmon and Sea Trout Anglers and the R.O.I. The latter Federation is a new Salmon fishing Federation. The Angling Council has an office at Sports Headquarters, Nangor Way, City West, Dublin 14 which is staffed on three mornings a week. The Angling Council has been grant aided by the Irish Sports Council who have made it abundantly clear that future funding will only be given to a single angling body representative of all the fishing disciplines. Breakaway bodies or Federations operating on their own will not be considered. To date, grants have been given for administration purposes only. The Irish Sports Council also expects a contribution from all anglers, coarse, game and sea towards the financing of the angling council. To date, an initial contribution has been received from game anglers represented by the Trout Angling Council of Ireland. On the other hand, the Angling Council had some extra funds last year and made a contribution of €2000.00 to each of the International Fishing Teams travelling to the CIPS World Angling Championships held in Portugal. However, while those extra funds were available last year, they are not available this year and I regret that no grants of this nature will be available to the 2007 Teams.

Earlier this year, the Federation found it necessary to send the following Motion to each of the Seven Regional Fisheries Boards.

The need for such stems from the lack of consideration shown by developers by fencing down to the waters edge especially on waters where they do no own the fishing rights. Also this action by developers will cause problems in any future search and rescue attempts that may be needed. Consideration also needs to be shown for the tourist infrastructure, where waters are blocked off like this, tourism is the first casualty and pollution control is made significantly more difficult. It is suggested that, where an application for a waterside development is submitted, the 20ft (6.096m) of waters edge should be ceded to the Department of Marine & Natural Resources and subsequently managed by the Regional Fisheries Boards.

A copy of the Motion was also sent to Brendan Smith, T.D. (FF) and Bernard Durkan, T.D. (FG), to David Byrne, Central Fisheries Board and to the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government.

There is no doubt that something urgently needs to be done in this matter. From what Ican gather, quite a lot of bank space has already gone and the NCFFI cannot stand by and watch access to rivers and lakes disappear into building sites without taking steps to ensure access for anglers. If the Fishing Rights are in public ownership, there must be access to allow the rights to the used.

I am aware that the Southern Regional Regional Fisheries Board and the Northern Regional Fisheries Board have already passed the Motion, The South Western Board did not support it and, at the time of writing this Report, I have not yet heard from the remaining Boards, the Central Fisheries Board or the Department of the Environment, Heritage & Local Government. I am aware that both T.D.' s are pushing the matter. I wish to acknowledge and thank Dave Neal for bringing this matter to my attention and sending the motion to me. Dave uses his position on the Southern Board, where he was elected in a different category, to represent the NCFFI views on that Board, while I am on the Northern Board and it is remarkable that the only two Boards which have so far passed the Motion are those where there is direct NCFFI representation. This enforces the point which I made earlier, the NCFFI has to have representation on all Regional Fisheries Boards or on the organisations that replaces them in the future.

Finally, I must thank Dave Egan and those committee members who turned up at the Meetings for their work during the year on behalf of the Federation, also Bobby Smithers and those who worked with the Team, The Drogheda Club for their work at the Junior Canals, all those, including the Northern Board and the Killeshandra Angling Club, who helped at the All-Ireland, the Sponsors, the Healy Group, the Web Master, Dave Neal and anyone else who helped in any way.

Brendan Coulter,
Hon. Secretary.

Blaithin,
Creighan,
Cavan.

March 8, 2007.

Department of the Environment,
Heritage & Local Government,
Custom House,
Dublin 1.

Dear Sirs,

It has been brought to my attention by a number of the clubs affiliated to the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland that some of their members are expressing concern at the practice by developers who are fencing right down to the waters edge on rivers and lakes in areas where they do not own the fishing rights.

The result of these developments is the loss of bank space where anglers have been fishing for a very long number of years and, in one or two extreme cases where development was carried out at an access point, a stretch of bank is now inaccessible to anglers wishing to participate in their sport. The NCFFI is aware of an area where large coarse angling competitions were held in the past and where a long stretch of river bank has been taken up by developers cutting off access. I have also been informed that there are a number of signs offering lake shore sites for sale in areas of the country.

This practice by developers has an effect on the leisure activities, not alone of anglers, but also walkers, bird watchers and persons taking an interest in the countryside besides greatly restricting bank space available to overseas tourist anglers. It also makes any future attempts at search and rescue more difficult and effects access for pollution control. If this trend were allowed to continue, access to water in many areas would be cut off and anglers would have no facilities to participate in their sport.

I have enclosed a copy of a motion from the National Coarse Fishing Federation of Ireland that has been sent to all of the Regional Fisheries Boards in order to draw attention to the matter.

I trust that your Department will look into this matter of concern and take whatever steps are necessary to have it rectified.

Yours sincerely,

Brendan Coulter,
Hon. Secretary.

Public Relations Officer Report

The Federation was without a PRO for last year therefore there is no report this AGM.