andMr. Gallagher asked the Minister for Defence the strength of the helicopter service in Ireland; and if he will consider having a number of helicopters permanently engaged in protecting Irish fishing grounds.
20.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fishery Protection Service.
19.
asked the Minister for Defence the plans, if any, his Department have to improve the existing fishery protection service.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 19 and 20 together.
Improving the fishery protection service is a matter which is kept under review in my Department in the light of needs and resources. The construction of a second all-weather fishery protection vessel is proceeding at present and delivery is expected in November, 1977.
There are eight helicopters in the Air Corps. They will, as heretofore, carry out "sweeps" of particular areas from time to time at the request of the Naval Service, but it would not be feasible to have any of them permanently engaged on fishery protection duties.
Is the Minister aware that because Iceland is seeking a 200-mile limit and because we may in the near future have a 50-mile fishing limit, it is necessary to increase the present strength of the naval force to protect our fishing grounds? Can he tell the House what steps he is taking to ensure that they will be adequately protected?
I am fully aware of the probable situation mentioned by the Deputy. We are taking every possible step that can be taken. At the moment we are studying what will be the eventual result, which is not known to anybody, because the Law of the Sea Conference broke up and will be resumed in August. At the same time, we are doing our forward planning and seeing what we can do. As I have told the Deputy, we hope to have a new fishery protection vessel to augment our fleet in November, 1977.
Would the Minister again consider the possibility of having patrol boats of the type used in Norway for this kind of work? It would be possible to have such a boat at a much cheaper cost. Such a vessel would be sufficient to carry out this type of work and we could afford to have a greater number of them employed.
The advice given to me by the Naval Service is that, because of the size of modern trawlers and their very great strength against heavy seas, the only way that policing can be fully done, and done well in the future, is by means of all-weather fishery protection vessels. This is highly expensive but it is in accordance with the advice given to me. Small vessels cannot withstand the degree of heavy weather that the all-weather vessels can and, therefore, the advice is that we should concentrate as far as boats are concerned on all-weather fishery protection vessels. We are doing this at a cost of £4 million in respect of the new vessel.
Is the Minister aware that the type of boat I refer to is capable of going out in a force 10 gale and would be suitable for fishery protection off our coasts?
If the type of boat the Deputy talks about is suitable to go out in a force 10 gale it probably costs more than £4 million.