asked the Minister for Justice if he will state the amount of fines and costs recovered from owners and masters of foreign trawlers convicted for breaches of bye-laws in the Tirconaill District Courts from 1st October, 1923, to 1st November, 1926.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - CONVICTIONS FOR ILLEGAL TRAWLING.
No sums have been recovered in respect of fines and costs from owners or masters of trawlers convicted of breaches of fishery bye-laws in Tirconaill District Court in the period mentioned. There are legal difficulties in the way of collecting such fines and the nature of the legislation required to remove these difficulties is under consideration by the Attorney-General.
Am I to understand from the Minister's reply that the costs of the prosecutions are borne by the law vote?
The Deputy certainly did not understand it from my reply, and it is a separate question.
Could the Minister say when this imposition will cease of prosecuting owners of foreign trawlers and then not collecting the fine and making the taxpayers pay the costs? The State solicitor motors down in his Ford sedan at the expense of the ratepayers to conduct the prosecution.