As Deputies O.J. Flanagan, P. O'Donnell and Tully have already dealt thoroughly with the question of sea fisheries, I shall confine my remarks to the Foyle Fisheries. The last occasion I spoke on the Foyle Fisheries was when the regulations now in force were introduced by the Foyle Fisheries Commission to reduce the fishing week from five days to four. We were told on that occasion there would be a meeting of the fishermen and public representatives from Donegal at the Commission's office in Derry on the following Tuesday. I attended that meeting and I came away from it with the same impressions as I had when I went there. We were listened to, but that is all. We were told by the Commission that the four days fishing week was necessary. I still do not believe it is necessary. If it is necessary, then I would appeal to the Parliamentary Secretary to apply it from the mouth of the Lough right up to the River Foyle to where the last shot is taken by the netmen.
The Commission preach that the fishing week must be reduced. They have reduced the fishing season and also the number of licences issued. But, at the same time, they can make presents of salmon to people who have no connection whatever with the Foyle Fisheries Commission, or indeed with fishing in general in Ireland. Some time ago, I put down a question here in relation to this but it was ruled out of order. I do not know whether the Parliamentary Secretary is aware of it or not, but I have a list of names and addresses, and the number of salmon sent to these people last year totalled approximately 70 fish. These fish were sent to various people in Britain. If the Commission can send salmon to people in Britain as presents and at the same time, curtail licences for the fishermen on the River Foyle, who have to rear their families on their catches, it is time the Parliamentary Secretary took a keener interest in the working of this Commission.
Another question I put down recently was also ruled out of order. It concerned the payment of an employee of the Commission. I furnished his name at the time to the Clerk of the Dáil. My information is that this person drew wages from the Commission for two years and worked in a garage in Omagh. He was not known to be a bailiff at that time. If this charge is correct, and I have very strong reasons to believe it is, again it is time something were done about it.
Another point that is causing unrest among the fishermen and even among the bailiffs is the system of promotion within the Commission itself. I have the highest regard for the bailiffs who police the River Foyle and Lough Foyle. As Deputy Tully said, they are doing a job akin to that of the Garda and they should have uniforms and should be paid more. Far more bailiffs should be employed. At the same time, however, the bailiffs employed at present should be promoted on their merit. I have in mind a few bailiffs who merit promotion but who have been overlooked. I would appeal to the Parliamentary Secretary to inquire into the system of promotion in the Commission. I would not like to say what I think the reasons are, but it is hard to understand that a bailiff told to get down from the witness box by the justice should afterwards be promoted. It does not make sense to me.
There is another point not really of major interest, but I feel I should mention it. On one day last year, four bailiffs were engaged for a whole day "teeing up" salmon with nylon thread for the cameras of the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. Presumably, this was to publicise the Foyle Fisheries for the Northern Ireland Tourist Board. I should like to know the cost of this and I should also like to know where these people will come to fish. Apparently they were to come to the Mourne. But, unless you were a very close friend of a close friend of a Commissioner, you would not get fishing on the Mourne. It is a closed shop as far as the ordinary angler from Donegal, Derry and Tyrone is concerned.
In reply to some of these questions, I was told the Minister had no responsibility in the matter; but I would appeal to the Parliamentary Secretary to have these matters investigated. If this situation is allowed to continue and at the same time, people are refused licences, it is unchristian, to say the least of it. There should be some fresh thinking on the question of the issue of licences. The Advisory Council gave advice to the Commission on various occasions but this advice was ignored. I would appeal again to the Commission to take the Advisory Council into their confidence because the Advisory Council is composed of practical fishermen who understand fishing from A to Z. They are not in it for what they can get out of it but solely because they have a love of fishing. They made recommendations on numerous occasions. The least the Commission should have done was to listen to them, and above all, to listen in time, but they refused to acknowledge them on numerous occasions. After waiting two, three, or four years, ultimately they took advice when it was too late.
Undoubtedly fishing is the second greatest industry, second only to agriculture. In Donegal the inland fisheries are more or less confined, in my area, to the Foyle. There are families there who had been fishing the Foyle and getting their living out of it until the new regulations were made restricting the issuing of licences. The Commission should consider the economics of these families when they are considering the issue of licences. It is not right to say that one does not qualify by reason of not having held a licence two years out of three and to refuse a licence. That defeats the purpose which it was meant to achieve.
The big problem in relation to fishing the Foyle is that the Commission feel that fishermen are all crooks. I do not agree that net fishermen and anglers are crooks. This goes back again to the fact that no one has confidence in the other person. The fishermen have no confidence in the Commission. The anglers and the net fishermen have no confidence in the Commission, and I would go so far as to say that, in my opinion, some of the bailiffs are losing confidence in the Commission. Certainly the Advisory Council have no confidence whatever in the commission. If I were a member of the Advisory Council, I would do the decent thing and resign, because all they are there for at the moment is to take the blame.
The Parliamentary Secretary is aware that the Foyle fisheries are a great source of revenue to the State. I do not think the same can be said of other fishing industries of the State when the Donegal fishermen must pay a levy of 1d. and 2d. in the 1b. on salmon, whereas their colleagues who pay the same for a licence, fish the same hours, and have the same conditions generally, in Tyrone and Derry, do not have to pay any such levy. That is something the Parliamentary Secretary should consider very seriously in relation to the working of the Foyle Fisheries Commission. If he will not consider doing away with the levy generally, he should abandon it in relation to the Foyle fisheries. Where possible, the fishermen who fish the Foyle take their catches to the northern side where they do not have to pay a levy. I should like to make it clear that that is not done generally, but it is done where possible, and they do not break any laws by doing it.
Some time ago, the Commission, after reducing the fishing week, and cutting the licences to the bare minimum, decided that they would open a new shot between Carrigans and Derry. After a number of bailiffs had toyed about in boats for a week or more, they succeeded in shifting a large rock, which must have been one of the dearest rocks ever taken out of the Foyle. I mention that to give an example of the way in which money is being wasted—in my opinion, squandered—on the Foyle. I should like the Parliamentary Secretary when he is replying, or on the next available occasion, to let me know the cost of making that shot on the Foyle.
I do not like to make an attack on any person, especially when he is not present to defend himself, but there is a person—I shall refrain from naming him—on the Foyle Fisheries Commission, who said that he could not care less what happened to the River Finn. A professional man told me that he had told him that, and the man who told me is prepared to come forward and testify——
