Ós rud go bhfuil an oiread san le rádh agam ní labharfhad as Gaedhilg i mblíana chomh fada 'is ba ghnáthach liom. Mar gheall ar a bhí ins na páipéirí le deidheanaí ba mhaith liom go dteigheadh sé amach go dtí an tír go bhfuil gádh ar an Roinn seo agus go bhfuil obair le déanamh aige. Tá cathú orm nach bhfuilim ábalta an geall a thugas do Teachtaí do cholíonadh ná tógfaí na Meastacháin seo Dé Lúain. Ní féidir le cuid de's na Teachtaí, ó'n deiscirt agus áiteanna eile, bheith annso Dé Lúain.
What I have said is that because of the length of the statement I consider it necessary to make this year I will have to cut down the statement it was customary for me to make in Irish. I think the amount of work left of late to the Department requires a very detailed statement, and as I appreciate the fact that the time allowed for Estimates now is curtailed to a certain extent, I have therefore abandoned my usual practice in that respect. I should also like, before I go on to the statement, to say that I regret that I have not been able to fulfil the half-promise I made to certain Deputies that I would try and arrange that this Vote would not be taken on a Monday. There are several Deputies from far-distant places who are particularly interested in this Vote, but who find it impossible to come here on a Monday, or at least can only arrive here at a very late hour at night. However, I had to fall in with the arrangements made for the Parliamentary procedure.
As promised last year, when this Estimate was before the House, details are appended to the Estimate showing for the various schemes, how the Vote will be allocated during the year. Before explaining in detail the figures before the House I think it is necessary for me briefly to explain the functions and the scope of the Department. That is perhaps all the more necessary in view of the criticisms to which I referred, and which I am satisfied are mostly very ill-informed. The principal function of my Department is to carry on the regulation of the national fisheries both as far as sea fisheries are concerned and inland fisheries. In the regulation of sea fisheries, for instance, which we have to supervise, we have to make, in some instances, bye-laws curtailing fishing in certain areas along the coast, and to see that these regulations are carried out. As far as inland fisheries the same thing applies. We have to see about the carrying out of the existing laws with regard to fisheries. There are some twenty-four or twenty-five Acts governing them. We have to look after the Boards of Conservators to whom the details of these things are entrusted. We have to supervise these Boards and regulate their elections and watch their activities generally in respect to their financial arrangements.
I may say this work forms a considerable portion of the work of the Department. Arising out of this duty of the regulation of the fisheries, my staff must hold public inquiries and these are on the increase in recent years, because since the Department was formed, many people who had not raised certain questions with regard to existing bye-laws or regulations for perhaps a generation, think that now is the time to raise them, and where there is a good prima facie case put up, we can hardly refuse to grant such an inquiry. The inquiries cover a very wide range of matters affecting the fisheries, for instance, the fixing or arranging of times for the opening of seasons on certain rivers, lakes and so on, in which it is competent for me to make regulations. In order to carry out these inquiries properly it is necessary to have some knowledge of the habits and so on of our commercial fishes, and in order to obtain that, we have to keep a trained staff of scientists for four of whom, in fact, you see provision in the Estimates. It is the principle at present to work in conjunction, as far as sea fisheries are concerned, with the International Council for the Study of the Sea, of which this country is a member.
The remaining function of the Department with regard to fisheries is put down under the head of Development. It is principally with regard to this part of our duties that we have received the severest criticism. I think it is right, in looking into that, that I should lay before the house a brief history of the activity of government in the past in the way of development and also to state my views of policy as to the legitimate action which I think a Government Department may reasonably be expected to take in developing this particular national resource. Now, perhaps, it is well first of all to point out—and this is important because of the very many statements that in Scotland and England the taxpayer is not called on to find money for the development of fishing, nor, as a matter of fact, in the past, have those countries expended any money in fishery development, as such—they have spent money by way of provision of harbours and certain minor marine works.
In recent years there was a loan provided, after very considerable agitation from Scotland and Scottish M.P.'s in the British Parliament, by the British Government for Scottish fishermen, but the conditions surrounding the loan were such as to render the thing absolutely useless. The loan made was nominally £150,000. As a matter of fact, because no loan would be given unless the applicant was able to put up an equal amount to the amount asked, the whole thing fell through, or practically fell through. There were, I think, about twenty-five loans altogether granted, and they did not amount to £10,000. The great development of the industry in Scotland is due to the fact that it has been financed and maintained by private enterprise.
Some things that have been done in other countries are canvassed a great deal in the arguments put forward as to what we are doing. Take, for instance, Norway, France and Denmark. They have given a certain amount of assistance by way of tariff, by subsidising transit or making some arrangements for cheap transit, and by placing funds at the disposal of certain organisations which gave, or had been in the habit of giving, loans to fishermen for the supply of boats and gear. In Ireland the policy that was pursued was the policy pursued in the then United Kingdom, of leaving a fisherman to work out his own salvation. That policy prevailed until 1891, when the Congested Districts Board was formed. Prior to that there was some help given in the way of loans to Irish fishermen for boats and gear, but these loans were given from certain charitable funds. There was one fund, the Reproductive Loans Fund, I think it was, which was originated by certain friendly Quakers in London. There was another fund, also a charitable fund.
In 1891 the C. D. Board was formed, and one of its functions was the development of the fishing and rural industries along the western sea-board, in what were defined as congested areas at the time. Eight years later, about 1899, the Department of Agriculture was formed. That was endowed with a fixed amount, allotted by the statute endowing it, of £10,000 a year for fishery development. In addition to the fishery work proper of the Department, rural industries were passed over also, as you can see from the Estimate, by the Ministers and Secretaries Act.
It would be just as well to mention here that the kelp industry is a matter that has always been considered to be the function of our Department. We can at least claim that we found the kelp industry in practically an extinct condition, and now, by the co-operation of certain persons interested, we have brought it to a very live condition, and it bids fair to become still more flourishing, so long as the persons who make the kelp play square—perhaps it would be better to say exercise care— in dealing with kelp, so that the stuff, when put in the market, will be what it purports to be.
