I think it may be as well for me to give the Dáil some account of the present position at Haulbowline. On the 26th June, 1929, I gave a general statement of events since the Saorstát Government took over the island in 1923, and explained that we proposed to let the dockyard if possible, but that whether we could let it or not we had decided to close it down and reduce our staff to a small maintenance party. On the 8th May, 1930, I stated to the Committee that we had made a temporary letting of the dockyard to the contractors for the breaking up of the "Celtic," which went aground in Cork Harbour in 1929. Although the letting was for this special purpose, the firm (Messrs. Peterson and Albeck) hope to be able to extend their operations and set up a permanent business of ship-breaking in Cork Harbour, and to do some ship-repairing also if that proves practicable; and we are very willing to facilitate them by giving them a long lease of the dockyard if we could agree on suitable terms, and if no better use for it turned up in the meantime. No better use has turned up; the prospects of shipbuilding and ship-repairing firms are rather worse now than were in 1929. We have had no offer for the dockyard, though we had inquiries which came to-nothing.
Rushbrooke and Passage dockyards are now definitely closed down and are selling off their plant. The Queenstown Dry Dock Company have gone into liquidation. We have succeeded in making a fair agreement with Messrs. Peterson and Albeck, who have formed a company in the Saorstát (Haulbowline Industries, Ltd.) to work the place. The agreement has been embodied in a draft lease, which will be discussed with the lessees and completed when the Oireáchtas has given its general approval to the transaction in accordance with the terms of the State Lands Act, 1924. One consequence of the agreement is that a great part of the plant and buildings in the dockyard will have to be scrapped. This is necessary because they are not required for the business of ship-breaking; but it is also necessary because much of the plant is obsolete or redundant even for the purpose of ship repairing.
The dockyard was designed for the purpose of repairing ironclads and other large war vessels, and even for that purpose it was not well designed, because it was made up of many additions. It was still less well designed for the purpose of repairing ordinary merchant vessels, and a large part of the plant was either obsolete in design or nearly worn out. During the last few years we have sold a good deal of scrap from the island. We were fortunate enough to sell some copper during the boom of that metal, but the present is a bad time to sell scrap or anything else, and we may very probably keep what is left for better times. We shall act as seems best at the moment. That part of the plant which is essential for the ship-breaking business is included in the lease to our tenants, and they will be bound to maintain it. Another part which is useful, but not in good enough condition for leasing, is being sold to them at an agreed price. The remainder will be disposed of in the open market when the market is more favourable. It is not of great value, and the buildings which have been abandoned have, roughly speaking, no value at all. The materials are not worth the cost of demolition.
All that I have been saying refers to the dockyard only; that is, the eastern part of the island. The western part contains stone store-houses, a hospital, some 60 houses, some barrack buildings and five oil tanks, three of them large and two small, with a total capacity of 17,000 tons of heavy oil or 14,000 tons of petrol. We have always hoped to be able to let these oil tanks which are clearly a valuable property if they can be used, but their capacity far exceeds what is needed for the supply of Cork and the neighbourhood. The principal ports for the import and distribution of oil and petrol in Ireland are Belfast, Dublin, and Foynes on the Shannon, and there is no reason to expect that this state of things will change. We have now negotiated an agreement with a newly-formed firm, the Cork Harbour Oil Wharves, Ltd., which proposes to import oil and petrol in bulk to Haulbowline and deliver it from there in smaller ships to ports in Ireland and Great Britain. This being an entrepot or transit trade depends upon a large turnover and cannot bear heavy charges and at our suggestion the Cork Harbour Board has agreed to a specially low scale of harbour dues on oil and petrol thus tran-shipped. We have every hope that this venture will succeed and will be profitable to the new firm, to the Harbour Board, and to the Government.
When both these new firms are established and in working order we shall have to take up the consideration of the question what is to be done with the rest of the island, and especially with the houses and their inhabitants. I do not know what the best course will prove to be, but I anticipate that the Government will not continue much longer to manage all this rather troublesome house property on the present philanthropic lines.
When these leases are made the Government will be relieved of the maintenance of the greater part of the buildings on the island but will have to carry out certain works of restoration which will be properly chargeable to the maintenance sub-head A. The total vote is £5,800 as against £4,150 in 1930-31. In sub-head A, dockyard maintenance, the amount is £4,000, showing an increase of £900, due to the necessity for heavy repairs on the coaling jetty to be included in the lease of the oil tank installation. Sub-head B, fuel, light and water, amounts to £400. There is a reduction of £250 due to the leasing of the greater part of the island. Sub-head C deals with alterations to plant and buildings. The increase of £1,000 is due to the necessity for providing for expenditure that may arise in connection with the disposal of certain surplus buildings and plant in view of the revised arrangements for the leasing of the eastern part of the island.