asked the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry if he proposes to establish a fishery harbours committee representing fishing interests in order to facilitate the speedy development of harbours for fishing.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fishery Harbours Committee.
12.
I have no proposals at present for the establishment of a fishery harbours committee. Having regard to the wide range of fishery harbour works requiring to be considered all around the coast I doubt if a single committee would prove effective. I feel that the current departmental practice of having prior consultations with the local fishermen in regard to any harbour improvement scheme meets the objectives that the Deputy has in mind.
Is the Minister aware that very many of our harbours are in a truly deplorable condition and that this is stultifying the expansion of the fishing industry and trade and commerce generally? In a situation where it is now known that a ship was built to service one of our island communities and when that ship was completed it transpired that there was no harbour to facilitate the ship, does the Minister consider that there should be co-operation and consultation and that the kind of committee that I recommend would have been of very real value?
What the Deputy has said is not new thinking. A very big fishery harbour survey was carried out, certain areas were classified as places for particular development and there was also a preliminary survey on a county by county basis to itemise different works that would be needed. All the different bodies were contacted and asked to give their thinking on the matter. The engineering works involved, the catch in each individual area and the cost of the work have to be weighed in terms of cost/benefit analysis. Sufficient work is being done at the moment on itemising the different necessary works to be done. Regarding ships coming into the fleet here and not finding suitable harbours for them, it must be remembered that we are now into ships 120 feet long and it is difficult to make provision for those in advance. Who knows what type of ship we will have in a few years' time?
The Minister must agree that there is a lack of co-ordination of effort where a ship designed to service one of our island communities could not find a harbour and is still awaiting the provision of a harbour.
The local factors involved in that could not have been foreseen by anybody in advance.
Does he agree that the kind of liaison that I recommend would be helpful to the Board of Works to accelerate the development of a harbour?
I do not agree in the case that the Deputy has mentioned.
Question No. 13.
Arising out of the Minister's reply when he said that ships 120 feet long are now coming in and these have to be catered for——
Would the Deputy repeat that? I could not hear him.
Arising out of the Minister's reply when he said that ships are now getting bigger and it is more difficult to accommodate them, surely he is aware of the ferryboat at Burtonport which cannot go to Aranmore Island because there is no harbour there and that ship is only 50 feet long?
In that instance there are local factors with regard to the improvement works concerned that could not have been foreseen by anybody.
Is the Minister telling the House seriously that his Department bought a boat which could not berth in Aranmore Island and that no one could have foreseen that?
I am not saying that.
What is the Minister saying?
When contractors are difficult to get, when somebody undertakes to do a job and subsequently does not do it, nobody can foresee items like that cropping up.
Is the Minister seriously telling the House that it was blindness on the part of the Department of Fisheries and Forestry that they could not foresee that a berth was needed at Aranmore Island to accomodate a 50-foot boat acting as a ferryboat between the mainland and Aranmore Island and now, after almost three years of Fianna Fáil Government, not one other item has been dealt with? It is a shame. The whole lot of them are a laughing stock.
There is nothing on the Order Paper about Aranmore Island.
It is the joke of the tourist season when visitors come to the area.
I am sure the Deputy did not foresee three years of Fianna Fáil Government.
Can the Minister say if the money that was available for harbour works last year was expended?
I do not have that information but I will get it for the Deputy.