asked the Minister for Lands and Fisheries if he will state when he intends to introduce the necessary proposals for legislation to provide for the protection of our coastal fisheries.
Ceisteanna.—Questions. Oral Answers. - Protection of Coastal Fisheries.
It is intended to introduce legislative proposals dealing with the exclusive fisheries of the Saorstát when a decision has been reached on certain details.
Arising out of the Parliamentary Secretary's reply, is he aware that a similar answer has been given us for years past, not alone since Fianna Fáil came into power, but before they took office, and nothing has been done? Having regard to the precarious position of our sea-coast fisheries, does he agree that some definite and decisive action ought to be taken? Is he aware there are 57 different by-laws dealing with coastal fisheries and only eight of them give us protection up to a distance of three miles from the coast? Is he further aware that foreign trawlers can fish in our territorial waters but they cannot do so within the three-mile limit around the English and Scottish coasts? This matter is very serious, yet it would seem in many quarters to be made a joke of.
It is to be hoped that when the promised legislative proposals dealing with Saorstát fisheries are introduced, steps will be taken to repeal the enactments of the 1925 Act.