'I’m not God,' says Cork hydro-electric plant owner in court case over trapped salmon

Dan Twomey said: 'I am not in the business of killing any fish.'

Dan Twomey said he would have to come up with a mechanism to prevent the salmon from getting into the plant. File photo: Owen Humphreys/PA

Salmon returning from sea to their river spawning grounds and becoming trapped in the waters around a hydro-electric plant on the River Lee prompted Inland Fisheries Ireland to prosecute the owner.

Senior IFI environmental officer Michael McPartland said that problems with the grates across the entry and exit points for the water divergence from the River Lee at Dan Twomey’s hydro facility — south of the old Cork waterworks and directly across the river from the Kingsley Hotel — resulted in salmon becoming trapped.