I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £44,800 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1958, for Salaries and Expenses in connection with Sea and Inland Fisheries, including sundry Grants-in-Aid.
As forecast by the Minister for Finance in his financial statement on 8th May last and in my opening address on the Fisheries Estimate on 4th June last it is proposed to provide an additional sum of over £50,000 in the current financial year for Fisheries Services.
The Supplementary Estimate now before Dáil Éireann is for a net sum of £44,800. Its object is to provide for certain new services and an expansion of existing ones.
The new services proposed are as follows:—
I am making provision this year for a sum of £7,500 under new sub-head E (6) to cover the initial or preliminary cost of providing one exploratory vessel, which it is hoped to build in an Irish boat-yard. As I mentioned in my Estimate speech, the need for exploratory fishing work is long overdue and its lack is a great handicap to successful fishing operations in any but the merest fringe of our coastal waters. This need has become acute in recent years now that the development of the fishing fleet has entered on the phase where the catching power available can be regarded as adequate for the exploitation of immediately inshore fishing grounds.
It is accepted in all countries that exploratory work of the kind I have in mind cannot be regarded as within the scope of working fishermen, who have heavy commitments to meet and cannot be expected to devote potential fishing time to the pursuit of problematic catches in untested waters. It is the common practice in other countries to provide at state expense for systematic testing of fishing grounds and for development of new types of fishing by the operation of exploratory fishing vessels. As an earnest, therefore, of my determination and the Government's desire to make better use of our fishing resources I intend making a start this year with this important new work.
A sum of £4,100 is provided under new sub-head E (7) for a training scheme for fishermen. This scheme was also forecast by me in the course of the debate on the Fisheries Estimate last month. As Deputies may well know, we have a good fishing tradition but unfortunately we lack educational facilities necessary to make fishing a vocation and worthwhile livelihood. We are, in fact, one of the few maritime nations in the world without such facilities. Certain measures of a limited nature have been taken for the training of skippers for boats issued under the Gaeltacht boat scheme and my Department has thereby gained valuable experience.
My intention now is to provide in permanent form a training scheme for fishermen in seamanship, navigation, and modern fishing techniques, etc. The task will not be an easy one but I am hopeful that, as the Government is prepared to provide these facilities, there will be an encouraging response and that we will have young men coming forward who are anxious and enthusiastic to become first-class trained fishermen and skippers. In the current year I propose to take steps towards the provision of a suitable training vessel and I also intend to initiate shore-based courses of instruction. A sum of £2,000 is being provided towards the cost of training vessel and a similar sum towards the expenses of trainees. With a sum of £100 to meet incidental expenses, this brings the provision under sub-head E (7) up to the total of £4,100 which I mentioned earlier.
Deputies will note that I am providing an additional sum of £30,000 by way of Grant-in-Aid to An Bord Iascaigh Mhara under sub-head G. This sum is made up of £25,000 for the provision of two extra fishing boats and £5,000 towards the cost of erecting an ice plant at Dunmore East, County Waterford.
Moneys for the provision of boats and gear are normally made available to An Bord Iascaigh Mhara by way of repayable advances from the Central Fund but, as Deputies will note, this provision of £25,000 is an innovation. My intention is that at least two boats of 50'-56' type will be constructed and commissioned this year. I want to be in a position to use them to promote development of the fishing industry at such points on the coast as may prove necessary from time to time, to direct that the boats should be operated in a particular way and land their catch in accordance with certain directions. The boats will, in effect, constitute a form of reserve of catching power which could be deployed as may be found necessary to promote fishing activity at selected points to meet various needs, e.g., processing establishments, reduction plants, etc.
An ice plant at Dunmore East is badly needed and it is intended that An Bord Iascaigh Mhara will start work this year to make good the lack. Dunmore East has re-developed into an important fishing port of recent years, particularly for herring, and ice is an absolute necessity if the large catches are to be handled and transported in an efficient manner. The cost of erecting and equipping such an ice plant is estimated at £10,000. I am including a free grant of £5,000 towards same in this Supplementary Estimate and I also intend with authority of the Minister for Finance to have, additionally, a sum of £3,000 for this purpose issued to An Bord Iascaigh Mhara this year by way of a repayable advance from the Central Fund. In all, a sum of £8,000 will be made available this year for the ice plant leaving the balance necessary to complete the work to be found next year.
Of the additional £5,000 to be allocated to the Inland Fisheries Trust £3,000 is being made available from the National Development Fund for the completion of work on the fish farm which is being established by the trust at Fanure, Roscrea. The balance of £2,000 is required for the purposes of general development work for the improvement of brown trout fisheries being carried out by the Trust and it is proposed to allocate this sum by way of an increase in the Grant-in-Aid of the Trust from sub-head F (6) of the Fisheries Vote.
Financial provision is also being made for a technical assistance service which has not hitherto been provided for in the Vote for Fisheries. Prior to the transfer of the Fisheries Administration to my Department in April last, fisheries technical assistance projects were financed from the Vote for Agriculture. A number of projects are likely to be undertaken in the current financial year and are expected to cost £2,000. Some of these come within the scope of the technical assistance sub-agreement recently concluded with the United States Government providing for the use by the Government of £350,000 of the Grant Counterpart Fund. The cost of such fishery projects, estimated at £800, will accordingly fall to be recouped out of Grant Counterpart and an Appropriation-in-Aid of this amount has been provided for. The remainder of the cost of the technical assistance projects, estimated at £1,200, will be borne entirely on the Fisheries Vote.
Summing up, I may remark that the gross amount sought by me in this Supplementary Estimate is a sum of £45,600. Deducting the Appropriations-in-Aid, estimated at £800, the net sum required is £44,800.
I may remind Deputies that a sum of £3,000 is being made available from the National Development Fund to the Inland Fisheries Trust for their fish farm at Roscrea and that £3,000 will be issued to An Bord Iascaigh Mhara as a repayable advance from the Central Fund in respect of the Dunmore East ice plant.
The total amount required in the current financial year for sea and inland fisheries, inclusive of the original net Estimate, is £177,000 by way of supply services.
