First meeting of National Inland Fisheries Forum (NIFF)

National Inland Fisheries Forum (NIFF)

The first meeting of the newly constituted National Inland Fisheries Forum (NIFF) took place on the 26th of October.

Sixteen members of the Forum attended the first meeting, which was chaired in a very positive and open manner by Mr Jack Keyes. The Forum members spent some time working on the ‘rules of engagement’ for the NIFF and they also considered high level ideas for their 2018 working programme. These included youth angling, funding, fish stocks, water quality and training for voluntary organisations.

The Forum also received a presentation from Ms Shona Roche in relation to the National Strategy for Angling Development.

A full list of NIFF members and more detail on the inaugural meeting to follow.

ENDS

Contact:

Paul O’Mahony

Communications Manager

Inland Fisheries Ireland

Tel: +353 (1) 884 2675

NOTES:

About the NIFF

The purpose of the Forum, whose establishment was provided for in the Inland Fisheries Act 2010, is to provide a mechanism to recognise the important contribution of a wide range of stakeholders to the policies of IFI, and their inputs into the sector generally. During its first term, a specific objective of the Forum was also to ensure that this contribution was not lost when the Regional Fisheries Boards were abolished as part of the process of establishing IFI.

The initial cycle of the Forum was launched in October 2011 and concluded its three-year term in 2014. Following a comprehensive review of the NIFF’s first cycle, its structure and function has been modified to enable more effective operations. In accordance with the provision in the 2010 Act, the Minister has had an input into this review process and has signed off on the revised structure.

To recognise the special role of angling stakeholders, each of the main angling organisations was requested to nominate two of their members to represent their interests for the duration of the second cycle of the NIFF. These nominees were then appointed to the Forum by the Minister. The process of selecting the remaining members of the new Forum was managed by the Public Appointment Service (PAS) with the support of IFI. The forum consists of not more than 60 members.