This Estimate for the expenses of administration of the sea and inland fisheries and for the carrying on of rural industries differs little from that presented to the House last year. It does not give evidence of that resuscitation and development of the fishing industry which the Government and Deputies desire and towards the realisation of which I shall shortly introduce a Bill, the main outlines of which have received the approval of the Executive Council but some of the details of which still require settlement. The proposals in the Bill will involve, at a later date, my laying before the House a Supplementary Estimate for these services.
Deputies will see that the principal variations in this Estimate as compared with that for last year are an increase of £3,320 in Sub-head A for salaries, a decrease of £3,970 in sub-head E for fishery services, and a fall of £1,965 in the sum estimated to be realised under Sub-head 1, Appropriations-in-Aid.
The increase in the provision for salaries is accounted for by the recent appointment of a Secretary of the reconstituted Department which now embraces the Land Commission and the old Department of Fisheries. This is an additional post and it is the intention that this officer should be sufficiently free from the routine work of this large Department to devote his undivided attention to certain necessary tasks of reorganisation and to the carrying out of the Government decisions embodied in the White Paper on the recommendations of the Gaeltacht Commission. A small sum has been taken for additional staff to assist him in these duties but Deputies will appreciate that some of the decisions in the White Paper involve the carrying out of schemes of considerable magnitude and that as the plans for these mature it will be necessary to come to this House for further Votes either for my Department or for other Departments concerned in carrying out these schemes. I shall have something to say later as to what has already been done in these matters.
In the discharge of the duty which the Government have placed upon me of seeing that the decisions in the White Paper are carried into effect, I have the assistance of a Committee, including very able officers of high standing in other Departments, the activities of which affect the Gaeltacht, for the purpose of coordinating these activities in the Gaeltacht, and I am glad to bear testimony to the zeal and enthusiasm with which that Committee has tackled its work and to the very great assistance afforded to me by the technical knowledge and experience of its members.
The reduction in the sub-head for Fishery Services is apparent rather than real because certain items included under this sub-head last year are now comprised in Vote No. 11— Office of Public Works. If Deputies will turn to page 51 of the Estimates Book they will find provision made there for fishery stores and stations, £750; hatcheries and fishery lodges, £420; making a total of £1,170; and on page 46 they will see £1,000 set down for the dredging of fishery harbours, thus accounting for £2,170 of the £3,970, and the balance represents a reduction in the sum proposed for the purchase of fishery requisites and the elimination of £1,100 which was voted last year for the organisation of fishermen but was not availed of. Deputies will understand from what I shall have to say later on the reasons for these two reductions.
The item of grants to Boards of Conservators and Local Fisheries Associations which last year appeared as one item has this year been divided under two headings.
I should call attention to a clerical error in the item, "Office Accommodation" (Vote 11) in the footnote on page 230 of the Estimates Book. The figure of £13,303 as shown includes £5,491 for the Land Commission, which Deputies will see is also debited in the footnote relating to that Department on page 225. Then there is a sum of £7,020 in respect of Fisheries and Rural Industries for items which last year appeared on this Vote and which, as I have explained, are this year borne on the Vote for the Office of Public Works. The total for "Office Accommodation," therefore, for the Fisheries Office for the current financial year is £792 as compared with last year's figure of £442, the increase being explained mainly by a provision of £250 for the installation of electric lighting in the offices in Kildare Place.
I propose that there should be set up a Sea Fisheries Co-operative Association which will in future deal with the supply of boats and gear and will be in a position to assist the fishermen in the marketing of their catch. Normally the Central Council will conduct the business of the Association, but having regard to the fact that this will be an entirely new departure, and that there will be a variety of problems to be tackled at the outset of the Association's career, the Government will assist the Association in securing competent men, and my Department will place at its disposal any advice or expert assistance which it may require in its initial years. The coast will be divided into regional areas which will elect representatives to a Central Council.
I have said that the Association will deal with the provision of boats. Before saying how it is proposed that this should in future be done, I think I ought to correct a widespread but erroneous belief that the fishing community have habitually in the past failed in the discharge of their obligations for loans for the purchase of boats.
There are no fair grounds for that suspicion. In March, 1913, when a very large number of loans had been made by the Congested Districts Board and the Department of Agriculture, aggregating very large sums, the total instalments in arrear amounted to £3,615 in the case of the Congested Districts Board, and £1,945 in the case of the Department of Agriculture These figures do not represent bad debts, but the instalments which had fallen due at that date and had not been promptly paid. After that normal, pre-war year came the war and conditions greatly changed. The equipment of the fishery folk increased very greatly in price. At the same time the fish increased greatly in value and during the whole war period the fishermen paid their way. In 1919 the arrears on loans stood at something under £3,000. Then came the post-war slump. The price of fish fell very considerably. During the time of high prices the fishermen had bought very dear boats and they found themselves saddled with a burden which they were not able to meet.
The position is now that the arrears of loans stand at £120,000. The whole blame for this state of affairs cannot be justly laid on the shoulders of the fishermen. If the proposals to which I have referred had been in operation during the period from 1914 to 1919, a much greater part of the high earnings would have been used for the purpose of discharging the purchase prices of the boats and for creating the necessary reserves for their upkeep. While I do not go so far as to say that they would be a complete remedy for the similar ills which might follow another upheaval of that sort, I do say that they would greatly mitigate them. During 1914 to 1919 the fishermen paid their way. That is to say, they paid their instalments normally as they fell due. They did not attempt to pay off their liabilities when they were getting the high prices. They merely paid their way. If the proposals to which I refer now had been in operation during that time, probably the total loans would be cleared off. Boats will, under my proposals, be supplied to competent fishermen who apply for them.
There will be no necessity for the fishermen desiring to own a boat to obtain securities for the repayment of the cost of the boat, a requirement which in the past has constituted a real difficulty and has imposed on well-disposed guarantors a liability which, in my opinion, the nation cannot reasonably expect them to undertake. The repayments will be secured in another and, I think, a more satisfactory way. The fish caught by any boat provided by the Association will, so long as there is any part of its cost remaining unpaid, be marketed under the supervision of the Association. The Association will retain the greater part of the share of the catch ordinarily taken by the owner and will hand over the remainder, so that the fishermen will get the share which they have always got, and the owner, if he is a fisherman, will get that share and the part of the owner's share which is not retained. It is, in my opinion, axiomatic that a fisherman-owner cannot be expected to pay more for his boat in any given period than the boat, properly managed, will earn. He will be relieved of the constant anxiety which has beset him in the past as to whether or not there will be sufficient money earned to meet the half-yearly instalment when it falls due. In good seasons he will pay more; in bad seasons he will pay less. The share of the earnings which is usually taken by the owner is based on long usage and experience, and I am satisfied that the part which it is proposed to retain will give the fund adequate security, while the principle which I have stated will enable the fisherman-owner to put to sea with a mind freed from financial uncertainty and with an incentive to devote all his energies to the pursuit of his calling.
The money retained will be applied also to the insurance of the boat under a scheme of insurance against total loss and certain other risks and to the provision of a reserve for the repair and maintenance of the boat. The latter provision, that the repair and upkeep of the boat, particularly in the case of a large boat, shall be foreseen and shall be provided against from the very outset of its career, is vitally important. The expenses of repairs, instead of falling with crushing weight on the owner at intervals during the life of the boat, will be distributed over the whole period of its life. In the early years, when little or no repair is needed, a sum will nevertheless be set aside and will accumulate against the day when, in the ordinary course of things, heavy repairs will be inevitable. The Association will see that the boat is kept in good condition and there will be an encouragement for the owner to take care of the boat, inasmuch as whatever is not spent out of the reserve will go towards the earlier liquidation of the purchase price of the boat. Experience in the insurance of fishing boats against loss and damage in other countries has not been an entirely unchequered one, but I have provided safeguards which will, I think, take away any disinclination—if it should in any case arise—to use every effort to avoid or minimise loss or damage.
Normally, the fisherman desiring to become the owner of a boat should be prepared to put up a part of the price of the boat in advance and this would ordinarily be a guarantee of good faith and good intention and a reasonable measure of security for the person supplying the boat. It is common practice in every such transaction. The Government realise, however, that the state of the fishing industry is to-day far from normal and, therefore, while it will be part of the scheme that at least 20 per cent. of the cost shall be so advanced by the purchaser, this condition may during the first ten years be waived by the Association in the case of any fishermen about whose abilities and standing it is satisfied. There is this necessary corollary, however, that if after the supply of a boat the Association is satisfied that the purchaser, through want of capacity or effort, does not show a prospect of paying for the boat in a reasonable time, they may take up the boat from him.
It is necessary also to deal with the existing situation resulting from the abnormal conditions I have referred to, following the late European War. Many loan-borrowers find themselves in a position in which they are saddled with obligations beyond their ability to pay. Deputies will remember earlier discussions of this matter. Following those discussions, certain decisions were come to, which meant a uniform writing down of the total obligations of the borrowers with reference to the dates at which the boats were supplied. I always felt some misgivings about that arrangement, as to whether it would result in rather unfair treatment as between individual cases. We have now a new proposal, that there should be a committee set up at once to investigate the circumstances of each case and to report. This is being done and the committee is being set up. I think that, as a solution of the situation and as a purely business transaction, that is the preferable course in everybody's interest.
In Sub-head F of the Vote, the total provision for rural industries shows a small increase, but it will be seen that under the head "development" there is a decrease of some £3,000, accounted for by a reduction of £1,280 in the sum for wages and allowances and £1,700 in the sum for purchase of materials.
I have had under careful review the position and character of these establishments which were taken over from the late Congested Districts Board. They are chiefly devoted to the production of knitted goods such as cardigans, pullovers, etc., and of crochet work and lace-making. They were always regarded by the Congested Districts Board as mainly instructional in purpose, it being thought that by the training of a number of skilled workers the setting up of undertakings on a commercial basis might be encouraged. This anticipation has not, however, to any appreciable extent been realised.
In the past the instructresses have been left in the position that they had themselves to find markets for their output in addition to the supervision of the manufacture, and this has always proved a very great burden and anxiety on them and has seriously impeded any prospect of putting the establishments on an economic basis. It will be seen from a comparison of the sum of £18,320, being the cost of their upkeep, with the sum of £11,840 under the Appropriations-in-Aid expected to be realised, that they impose a very heavy annual burden on public funds. I am taking steps radically to alter the position in regard to them. They constitute, in my view the nucleus of a very useful industrial organisation in the Gaeltacht, in which they are chiefly situate. I am anxious to see it greatly expanded, but on the present basis of the heavy annual loss expansion would not be possible. It would be only practicable if I could put the organisation on a self-supporting basis or on some footing more approaching that basis than is at present the case. I propose to treat them not as instructional but as industrial establishments conducted on a factory basis. There is, I am glad to say, a high degree of technical skill on the part of the trained workers and I have no grounds for misgiving as to the quality and the output of work of which the workers are capable.
It is necessary, however, that they should be afforded access to larger and steadier markets and that the work of the establishments should be co-ordinated. With these objects in view I am arranging to set up a central warehousing and selling depôt in Dublin with agents in this country and in other countries. Premises have already been secured for the purpose. At this depôt the goods will be examined to ensure that they are free from defects and are properly made and finished. The depôt will receive and distribute the orders. Each establishment will be engaged in manufacturing a particular type of garment. By standardising the work in this way I hope that greater skill will be acquired, resulting in a larger output per worker. I am also installing new machinery. I propose that the work should be regular and constant, and although the piece-work rates per operation may be less, I anticipate that the worker will receive a larger weekly wage. The putting into operation of these changes will probably in some cases occasion some temporary dislocation and possibly some misunderstanding, but I am confident that, with patience, when they begin to have their full effect, they will result in giving the workers a feeling of greater confidence and, I hope, an increased reward.
One grave factor in the present situation in regard to these industries is the heavy drain by emigration on the trained workers. In the past I am afraid the assistance which has been provided has been a means only of aiding emigration. I hope that the provision of more constant and regular employment will do something to counteract that tendency. I propose also that the appointments as manageresses should in future be reserved as an avenue of improvement for the more competent workers. In the past ladies from different parts of the country have been brought in to take charge and, while I highly appreciate the good work which has been done by these ladies in the establishment of these industries, and have no desire in any way to disturb the existing arrangements so far as they are concerned, I think that in the altered character of the undertakings, in which the work will be less responsible and less varied, future openings should be reserved for the workers in the classes, and for Irish-speaking girls especially. When I say that the work will be less responsible and less varied I mean to convey that under the proposed arrangement the central depôt will attend to the marking and designing. All that work will be taken from the shoulders of those in charge of the classes, and their work will be purely the supervision of the work of manufacture.
Under this sub-head there is provision for the necessary instructions and materials for the revival of the Donegal tweed industry. Deputies will be aware that this industry had almost disappeared as a result of the use of shoddy yarns during the European War. The Gaeltacht Commission recommended that steps should be taken for its revival on a satisfactory footing with a Government stamp of quality and in a wider range of patterns more in keeping with modern demands. There are in this matter two distinct schools of thought. One school maintains that the demand for a tweed made from homespun yarns has ceased to exist or there is a very limited demand and that if the industry is to be re-established on any broad foundation it must be on the basis of the use mainly of mill spun yarns. The other school regards the use of anything but homespun as anathema. I have so far declined to commit myself to either of these two dogmas. I am anxious to see the use of homespun yarns developed to the greatest possible extent as that industry provides more widespread employment for a greater number of workers. It is said, however, by the experts that certain tweeds of a light weight for which there is a considerable demand in the United States and elsewhere cannot be produced from homespun yarns and certainly not from yarns spun from the wool of the black-faced sheep found in Donegal. I am having experiments made to ascertain what is the lightest weight of material which can be woven with yarns spun in the cottages from the finer wools produced in other parts of this country. I am anxious that no decision should be taken which will limit in any way the legitimate expansion of this industry which is so important to many of the people in the Gaeltacht and which, adequately developed, may confer very widespread benefits. I am not, therefore, at present disposed to rule out entirely the use of mill spun yarns if certain cloths for which there is a demand can be made only from those yarns.
A wide range of new designs has been prepared by the instructor at present stationed at Ardara, the centre of the industry in Donegal. I am glad to say that large numbers of these designs have met with a very favourable reception in the quarters in which they have been exhibited. These have been made from mill spun yarns as local wool for home spinning was not available before the clip which has just now taken place. There are certain difficulties in the way of reproducing the whole range of these designs in home spun yarns from the local wool quite apart from the question of the weight of the resultant material, but so far as practicable they will be reproduced in home spuns. All these operations are necessarily slow but they are essential preliminaries to the formulation of a complete scheme for the re-establishment and extension of the industry. In the meantime I have made such temporary arrangements as will enable those weavers who are available to resume the making of the tweeds and to that extent the revival of the industry has already begun.
The sum taken for loans for industrial purposes has been increased from £200 to £3,300. This sum has been taken for the purpose of making advances to assist, by loans on approved security, private concerns establishing industries in the Gaeltacht or existing undertakings which it may be desired to expand. I have made certain proposals on the question of assistance to private industrial undertakings in the Gaeltacht and these are under examination by the Minister for Finance. It may be convenient here for me to say something generally about what has been done in coordinating the work of all the Departments of State in the improvement of the economic conditions of the Gaeltacht. Deputies will understand that many other Departments are concerned with actual schemes. Attention having been called to the extent to which potatoes exceptionally liable to disease are still used for seed in Connemara and the Arran Islands, and to the absence of facilities for obtaining reliable seed potatoes here, the Department of Agriculture this spring undertook the provision and sale of a quantity of certified seed potatoes.
