asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries whether he will now ascertain by secret ballot the wishes of the local fishermen as to the siting of the new anchorage and pier at Moville, County Donegal.
Ceisteanna—Questions Oral Answers. - Moville (Donegal) Anchorage.
28.
The answer is "no". The agreement of the local fishermen to the scheme of works approved for execution at Moville was reached at a meeting held in Moville on 8th June, 1971, at which the fishermen and representatives of my Department, the Office of Public Works and the Donegal County Council attended.
I want to say, first of all, that that is not true. Agreement reached under these circumstances— that is, you either take it this way or you may not get it—is surely not agreement. The general concensus of opinion on the part of all those who have reason to use this place——
The Deputy must put a question.
It is necessary to put this to contradict that in order to get the question properly understood. The fishermen themselves by concensus differ widely from what is now proposed to be done, but that is the manner in which their supposed agreement was got. It is because of that that I am asking that it should be got secretly in order that there would be a true ascertainment of their wishes. I am not casting reflections on the people who have chosen the siting at the moment but it differs, as the Parliamentary Secretary is probably aware, from the original proposition which was also chosen by the experts and with which the fishermen truly did agree.
This is the second time today that something has come up with regard to the fishermen and what they require to be done. As Deputy Blaney has said, the scheme was approved early in 1970 for Moville. I visited Moville in October, 1970, and the fishermen I met there, and their public representatives, were unanimous in asking for a change in that scheme. They said to me quite clearly that there was not sufficient consultation with the fishermen when the original scheme was drawn up. I found this to be so on my visits to other ports as well, so I said there should be sufficient consultation, that I would arrange a meeting between the representatives of my Department and the Office of Public Works, and that this meeting would be held in Moville where the requests of the fishermen could be listened to, and met, if at all possible.
That meeting took place in June, 1971, and a much larger scheme than the original one was decided upon there costing £65,000 as against £45,000 for the original one. It met with the unanimous approval of those present.
Surely this is not only a complete change of siting but a change of grounds by way of argument as to why the site has been changed. We were told here not so long ago that the new location was because of the technical——
The Deputy is now getting into an argument.
I am asking the Parliamentary Secretary whether the lapse of time changes the argument. In other words, it is the fishermen's wishes that have changed it now, whereas some months ago it was the technical advice that changed it. I am still saying that what is being said here in regard to this matter is not true and properly represented.
29.
asked the Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries whether a contribution towards the cost of the minor marine scheme at Moville is payable by the Donegal County Council.
The answer is "no".
Will it be the local authority, the Department, or an outside third party who will control and own the establishment when it is completed?
An outside party actually owns it and an outside party will be paying for the contribution to Moville instead of the county council.
Since when has it been the practice or the procedure for public money to be spent on that which is not public property in matters such as public works? The very nature of the thing is public works, public money, public ownership.
That is a separate question.
It is public property so far as its use by the people of Moville is concerned, and it is in the people of Moville that we are primarily interested. We want to give them the facilities they require for fishing.
The Chair has pointed out that that is a separate question.
The implication being that I am not interested in the people of Moville—it may not have been deliberate.
I said "we". That includes you.
That is new.
Everybody is interested in it.
This place is being repaired——
We are now getting into an argument. We have got through only 30 questions in almost an hour.