I move:
That it is expedient to authorise such payments out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas as are necessary to give effect to any Act of the present session to amend the Sea Fisheries Acts, 1952 to 1959.
Committee on Finance. - Sea Fisheries (Amendment) Bill, 1963: Money Resolution.
What I am not clear on is this: I understand the writing-off of the German trawlers, but in reference to boats, what seems to happen is that we recondition a boat and give it to another fisherman when the present holder has fallen hopelessly in arrears in instalments. We repossess the boat and then re-sell it on the same principle. Why should there be a substantial loss?
Unfortunately, there is. By the time the boat is reconditioned and sold to somebody else, we might get 50 per cent of its original value, sometimes less.
Of course, it is a second-hand boat which you must try to sell on the hire-purchase system to the second fellow. I take it I am right in saying that the other fellow has been in default for something like three or four years and that he has stopped caring?
That is so.
As a rule, I suppose you warn him to pull his socks up, but by the time you repossess the boat it is too late. It was the same when I was Minister for Agriculture: I was too late, and Deputy Flanagan, as Parliamentary Secretary, was also too late. I feel you ought to take the boat when three or four instalments have not been paid. Of course, we never did that, the result being that the boat deteriorated. In present conditions of fishing, I think we ought to be somewhat more Draconian than heretofore because the measure of the deterioration of these boats is a rebuke to us all. Is there a set system of disposing of these boats?
They are sold to other fishermen, having been reconditioned.
What are the periods of instalment?
A period of 15 years.
It might be a bit drastic to resume a boat after default of only a few monthly instalments.
We do not do that. In fact, we lean over backwards in favour of the fishermen. I should point out that in the past 12 months, An Bord Iascaigh Mhara have initiated a fleet inspection and maintenance scheme for giving assistance and advice not only to their own fleet but to owners of boats all around the coast. They give advice in respect of boat repairs and engine maintenance and have been providing a service to have this work carried out.
Question put and agreed to.
Resolution reported and agreed to.