asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries whether he has given British and North of Ireland fishing vessels permission to fish in Irish territorial waters; and if he will make a general policy statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fishing in Irish Territorial Waters.
42.
The position is that the Minister for Lands who was at the time responsible for fisheries announced on 31st December, 1959, that "as an administrative arrangement for the time being, and until further notice, boats not exceeding 75 feet in length, bona fide owned and operated by fishermen permanently resident in the Six Counties will not be prevented from fishing within our exclusive fishery limits.” The position remains unchanged.
Can the Minister take steps to ensure that our fishermen are not operating at a disadvantage with other fishermen using Irish territorial waters?
I certainly would hope they are not, and if there is anything I can do, having responsibility for the Department of Fisheries, I will certainly be desirous of doing it to alter that situation, if it does exist, but I have no reason to believe it does.
Has the Minister not seen the statement by the Irish fishermen's organisation stating in fact that the British-registered boats from Northern Ireland enjoy subsidies and facilities denied to them?
That is a different matter. I mistook the Deputy; I took it from his supplementary question that he was talking about their physical capacity or equipment. I am sorry that I should have misled him on that.
Does any benefit accrue to the Irish economy through allowing the northern fishermen to fish in Irish territorial waters, other than the fact that we all want to do everything we can to improve relationships?
The thing that strikes me about this matter is that they are all Irish people—that is No. 1. No. 2 is the fact that they might come from the Six Counties——
Would the Minister say——
Let me finish, please— being from the Six Counties, in these days of desires on all sides for harmony and co-operation, that is the second thing. The third point is that if more fish are landed in this country——
But they are not being landed here.
——or, should I say, if they are allowed to be landed, then obviously some benefit must accrue from the operations even of the landing, the handling and the dispatch.
Will the Minister say if southern fishermen are allowed to fish off the northern coast?
That seems a separate question entirely.
I would say there would be quite a lot of them there.
What does the Minister mean by "allowed to land"?
Just exactly what I said.
Off the coast of the Six Counties?
It is rather hard to distinguish between the two.
On occasion, the Governments have no difficulty at all in distinguishing.
Are southern Irish fishermen prohibited from——
Fishermen usually go where the fish are.
That is why they fish for them; give us credit for some intelligence.
Are Irish fishermen precluded by the Six Counties Goverment from fishing in waters off the coast of Northern Ireland, the six northern counties of Ireland?
That is a separate question.