I am endeavouring to explain my real reason for keeping the House so late. I have been advised by your secretary that I would have to confine myself to the purchase of the boats, that their operation and maintenance are matters for An Bord Iascaigh Mhara, and that the Minister has no responsibility in that connection. However, he is held responsible for this Adjournment matter because he sanctioned the original purchase.
I have here a Parliamentary Question to the Minister's predecessor. Deputy Bartley, who was then Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture and was in charge of Fisheries. I quote from Column 292 of Volume 135 of the Official Report of the 27th November, 1952:
Purchase of Trawlers.
Dr. Esmonde asked the Minister for Agriculture if he will state (a) the price paid for the three German trawlers purchased by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara recently, and (b) if those boats were submitted to efficiency trials prior to purchase by technical experts; and, if so, the names of those experts.
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Agriculture (Mr. Bartley): The price paid by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara for the three trawlers recently purchased by them in Germany was £50,250. The vessels were surveyed by a marine surveyor of the Department of Industry and Commerce prior to purchase.
Mr. O'Donnell: Is it a fact, as we have been led to believe it is, that these vessels were reconditioned prior to coming to this country? If so, why are they now in the Dublin docks for outfit?
Mr. Briscoe: They came through a storm.
Mr. Sweetman: The Government is in a storm at the moment.
Mr. Dillon: When does the Parliamentary Secretary expect the boats to start operating?
Mr. Bartley: Almost immediately.
Mr. Dillon: This side of Christmas?
Mr. Bartley: Yes.
Mr. Dillon: Does the Parliamentary Secretary intend to keep them permanently at sea?
Mr. Bartley: Yes.
I should like to know who is the marine surveyor of the Department who passed these boats because, although £50,000 was paid for them, they needed an overhaul almost immediately after being brought here and they have been consistently overhauled ever since. Of course in various debates here Deputy Bartley's successor, Deputy Dillon, was blamed because he spent money on them. I am not so much concerned about who spent the money on them as who bought them, who started this noble experiment, as it was called.
If these there trawlers were left at Killybegs, or wherever it was, with the engines falling out of them and if they were sold for scrap it might have been thrown up at Deputy Bartley's successor that it was the sabotaging of a noble experiment, but evidently they made up their minds to try to keep them at sea. They were not able to do that because the additional outlay from July, 1952, to 31st March, 1953, was £14,600. There was a further outlay to 31st March, 1960, exclusive of £3,353 for asdic equipment retained on sale of vessels and £3,444 recovered from insurers, which amounted to £41,000. That brought the total outlay up to £106,000.
The net amount, after deduction of ship brokers' commission, realised on sale to Claridge Trawlers Ltd., Lowestoft, Suffolk, was £33,000. Total depreciation was £72,000 and there are many other figures in respect of operations up to 31st March, 1960. I do not know whether I am allowed to mention them but the list is not very long. The gross value of fish landed was £255,000 and the net value of the fish was £236,000. The outgoings, including interest to the Exchequer, crews' shares, repairs, management expenses, etc., was £288,000. It cost £288,000 to catch £236,000 worth of fish. Losses amounted to £52,000 and the average loss per vessel per year was £2,177. The total amount for depreciation and operational losses was £125,000.
According to this reply the three vessels were bought and sold together and a separate price was not determined for each of them. Figures for the operation of the vessels for the year ended 31st March, 1960, are subject to audit and those since 31st March, 1960, are not yet available. Furthermore, the value of the catch of each of the vessels cannot readily be segregated for the entire period.
The Minister should hold an inquiry in his Department as to who surveyed these boats. As I mentioned to-night to the Taoiseach we are short of salesmen. Certainly the salesman who sold these boats to us did a very good job. The sailors who succeeded in bringing them here are to be commended. It was an epic to get them here.
This was called a noble experiment but the only thing that came out of it—and it is one of the mysteries of public administration and of political life—was that the man who bought these boats and lost £125,000 of the taxpayers' money was promoted from being a Parliamentary Secretary to be Minister for the Gaeltacht, as he is at present. I would what would have happened if he had shown a profit of £125,000 or a quarter of a million pounds? Another reason I bring this up is because of the manner in which the Department continue to fling money away on schemes which are not commendable and which have shown themselves to be failures. I asked the Minister in his first year of office to change the policy of his Department.
