I move:
That a sum not exceeding £16,720,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1980, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry, including sundry grants-in-aid.
With the permission of the Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I propose that the usual practice of discussing the Fisheries and Forestry Estimates together be followed in which case I shall move the Forestry Estimate after the debate concludes.
The Fisheries Estimate shows an increase of £718,990 over last year's Vote. The overall increase is due mainly to increases of £1,250,000 for major fishery harbour works, £334,500 for salaries, wages and advances, £557,500 in the grant-in-aid to Bord Iascaigh Mhara for administration and current development and £56,700 in the grant-in-aid for the Inland Fisheries Trust. Reductions occur in the provision for the construction of exploratory fishing vessels, the capital grant to Bord Iascaigh Mahara and expenditure in connection with the acquisition of fisheries.
On progress of the industry, conservation measures in 1979 and in particular those which closed herring fisheries, caused a reduction in landings as compared with 1978. A small increase in unit prices, however, resulted in a marginal increase in the value of domestic landings. The total value of the catch, excluding salmon landings and including foreign landings, increased from £25 million in 1978 to £27 million in 1979. The value of the salmon catch was £5.03 million. The value of exports increased from £31 million in 1978 to £33 million in 1979.
Twelve projects, incorporating either new processing plants or extensions to existing ones have been approved for grant purposes in the calendar year 1979 involving a total investment of £2.6 million. Statutory quality controls have been introduced for pelagic and shellfish to supplement those already in operation for demersal varieties.
On fishery harbour works and miscellaneous marine schemes steady progress is being made in providing improvement works where they are needed for fish landings, berthing of boats and other necessary facilities at fishing ports.
At Killybegs, civil engineering work in connection with the installation of a weighbridge is almost complete. The civil engineering works in connection with the installation of the syncrolift will be put to tender later this year. A contract has been awarded for the construction of the auction hall and work will commence very shortly.
At Castletownbere, plans for the provision of an effluent disposal plant and for the supply of a 38kv electricity supply to the area are well advanced. Work is progressing on the fish processing plant which is being built on Dinish Island by Eiranova Limited, an Irish subsidiary of the Spanish firm Pescanova.
At Howth, work is progressing according to plan on the harbour development scheme. The works in progress include the building of a new trawler breakwater, rock drilling and blasting within the new harbour area and the reclamation of the foreshore to the west of the west pier. A syncrolift, slipways, and auction hall, and the widening of the west pier are included in the scheme which will take about three years to complete. Over £1 million has been spent on the scheme to date.
As with my predecessor my main concern in relation to Ireland's membership of the EEC is the continuing negotiations on a definitive common fisheries policy. The Government's position in regard to a final agreement on such a policy has been made clear on numerous occasions and I see no advantage in retracing old ground today.
The Council meeting in January last was able to agree for the first time on a Community regulation laying down total allowable catches for Community waters for 1980 and this was complemented by a regulation providing for a Community system of catch reporting, which again is another first in this area.
The most recent Council was held in Luxembourg on Monday last, 16 June, and this will be followed up by a further meeting on 21 July. Last Monday's meeting was mainly taken up by a discussion on a Commission paper on possible ways of calculating quotas for individual member states which incidentally provides for implementation of The Hague commitment to double the Irish catch between 1975 and 1979. This meeting was conducted in a very friendly and conciliatory manner which was to be expected following the resolution adopted by the Council of Foreign Ministers on 30 May 1980 which specified 1 January 1981 as the target date for the adoption of a new common fisheries policy. I am therefore quite optimistic that we are now on the way to reaching final agreement on this very contentious issue. The outcome of the 1979 scheme of FEOGA grants for the inshore fishing industry was very favourable as far as Ireland is concerned in that nine fishing boats and three mariculture projects were allocated grant-aid amounting to £2,166,000, or 26 per cent of the total available for all member states. A scheme on the same lines has been agreed by the Council for 1980 and should be in operation shortly. This scheme will for the first time provide grants for the modernisation of fishing vessels.
The grant-in-aid to An Bord Iascaigh Mhara for 1980 for administration and current development amounts to £3,760,500, and the grant-in-aid for capital development amounts to £5,000,000. Additional funds are available by way of repayable advances from the Central Fund, a line of credit from financial institutions and the board's own resources to meet the demand by fishermen for loans for boats and so on. In addition to subvention towards the purchase of boats and gear the board's grant-in-aid for capital development also covers the provision of services to the fishing industry such as ice plants training and grants for mariculture.
In reviewing events of the past year a reference must be made to the sale of their boatyards by BIM. As Deputies are well aware, these yards has been incurring substantial losses in previous years and redundancies were inevitable. Transfer of the yards to private ownership has proved to be a very satisfactory development. The yards were disposed of at satisfactory prices, the Exchequer has been relieved of the losses and, more important, the large scale redundancies which faced the work force were avoided.
Suggestions have been made recently in this House that the delay in publishing the 1978 BIM report was due to covering up of irregularities. I can assure the House that there were no irregularities to cover up. There was absolutely nothing sinister in the delay, which was unavoidable. I hope Deputies will accept that.
The most significant development in the mariculture sector has been the introduction of the mariculture grant scheme administered by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara. Under the scheme grants of up to 30 per cent of capital expenditure may be made available, thus giving an important stimulus to the promotion of mariculture development. The revised legislative procedures outlined in section 54 of the Fisheries Act, 1980, will become operative as soon as all prior applications under the old legislation have been dealt with.
I now refer to our inland fisheries, the most important of which are our salmon fisheries. Provisional figures show that the total weight of the salmon catch in 1979 by all fishing methods was 1,073 metric tonnes, valued at £5.03 million as against 1,180 metric tonnes, valued at almost £4 million in 1978. The overall catch by weight in 1979 showed a 9 per cent drop on the 1978 catch, which in turn showed a similar decline on the 1977 figures. The market value of salmon caught in 1979 rose by almost 25 per cent on that for 1978, due no doubt to the effects of supply and demand and general inflationary trends. These figures do not include sea trout, which however are of relatively minor importance.
The estimated quality of salmon exported in 1979 was 667 metric tonnes, valued at £3,858,000, compared with 1,061 metric tonnes, valued at £4,191,000, in 1978. A proportion of the salmon exported in 1979 was of course in processed form, which was reflected in an increase in the exported value as against the landed value.
As to the protection of our salmon fisheries, my Department, with the co-operation of the Minister for Defence, arranged again for vessels of the Naval Service to patrol our coastal salmon fisheries during 1979 in support of the Garda and the fisheries protection staffs of the boards of conservators. I am pleased to say that this combined fishery protection effort was largely successful and resulted in the seizure and removal from our salmon fisheries of good quantities of fishing nets of illegal size and made from prohibited monofilament material. I have arranged that naval patrols of our salmon fisheries, with a backup land force of gardai where this is called for, will be carried out again during the 1980 season in co-operation with the protection staffs of the boards of conservators. The need for these enhanced joint protection measures continues in order to conserve our declining salmon stocks by ensuring adequate escapement of brood salmon to the spawning grounds in our rivers.
The Fisheries Act, 1980, became law in March 1980. The main object of the Act is to secure the most effective conservation, management and development of inland fisheries through the reorganisation and strengthening of the existing administrative structure. To that end, as previously publicised, the Act provides for the dissolution of the existing 17 boards of conservators and the Inland Fisheries Trust and for their replacement by a Central Fisheries Board and seven regional fisheries boards. Arrangements to set up these new boards are under way in my Department and I expect them to be in operation within a few months.
Turning to the Forestry Vote, the nett main Estimate, £21,021,000, represents an increase of £3,473,000 on the overall 1979 provision and is due mainly to higher salaries and wages and increased prices.
I should point out, however, that since the Estimate was prepared it has become necessary to make provision for a number of developments which could not have been anticipated. These are now the subject of a Supplementary Estimate for £4,053,000, which, as Deputies are aware, has been introduced and which I shall be moving when the debate on the main Estimate concludes. I trust that it will be more convenient for Deputies if, as well as dealing with the main Estimate, I refer also, at the appropriate stage, to the items covered by the Supplementary Estimate.
As the restricted time available does not permit me to deal with each subhead in detail I shall concentrate on the major items and, in particular, those which reflect substantial changes from last year. However, I shall of course when replying to the debate deal with specific points which Deputies may wish to raise on individual subheads.
Subhead C 21 deals with Forest Development and Management. As usual, this constitutes the main focal point of expenditure. Of the total subhead provision in the main Estimate, over £12 million is needed for wages to keep over 2,600 forest workmen in regular employment. This subhead caters for the wide variety of activities associated with the development and management of the national forest estate, which now embraces some 367,400 hectares or 907,800 acres. These include the production of nursery stock; the establishment, maintenance, and protection of State plantations; public recreation facilities; purchase, hire and maintenance of machinery; construction of forest roads; and the harvesting and conversion of timber. Provision is included for certain replacements in the machinery fleet and for an expansion of the roadmaking programme.
Subhead D deals with grants for private planting and my Department continues their policy of encouraging private forestry. The additional provision in the subhead this year reflects my recent announcement that substantial increases in the level of grants were being made available to assist private planting.
Under subhead G, game development and management, the substantial increase this year arises from the recruitment of 48 wildlife rangers. This new cadre of field personnel is geared towards a better enforcement of the Wildlife Act, not merely in relation to game matters but also in the context of the entire wildlife spectrum.
The conservation grant-in-aid for 1980 provides mainly for expenditure on wildlife research, an essential element of wildlife conservation and management. Habitat protection is perhaps the most important single aspect of wildlife conservation. It is my intention that current work of identifying important wildlife habitat in both State and private ownership will continue with a view to the establishment and management under the Wildlife Act of a representative network of nature reserves.
The final element in the main Estimate is subhead J, appropriations in aid. As Deputies will see, the projection for receipts in the original Estimate represents an expectation of £1 million more than in 1979. However, this has been found to be over-optimistic. I will deal more fully with this item in a few moments and, with this in mind, I should like now to turn my attention to the Supplementary Estimate referred to earlier. Of the total net supplementary amount, £4,053,000, nearly £2½ million—spread over a number of subheads—is accounted for by increases in pay and allowances for some 3,200 foresters and industrial workers sanctioned subsequent to the preparation of the original Estimate.
The remaining non-pay requirements in the Supplementary Estimate, which come to £1.6 million arise from the difficulties at present being experienced in the timber industry. With the continuing depressed state of the market for pulpwood-size timber, the Forest and Wildlife Service is faced with a growing arrear of thinning. If this problem is not attended to, it will inevitably have adverse effects on the quality, size and total availability of the more valuable sawlog sector in future years. In these circumstances the Government, having regard to the considerable national economic advantage involved, authorised that contracts be placed for a limited period with the two remaining pulpwood processing firms in the country to undertake harvesting and removal of small material in specified State forests by carrying out the necessary thinning of designated plantations on a contract basis, utilising the services of experienced harvesting gangs. This arrangement, coupled with the work done by the limited training harvesting work force of the Forest and Wildlife Service, will control to a degree the arrears of thinning in the State forests. An additional sum of £800,000 is included under subhead C.2 (7) for contract thinning of State forests.
Under subhead C.4 the sum of £400,000 is being provided to fund the continued operations of Chipboard Ltd., which is in receivership, for a limited period while proposals for a restructuring of the company are being considered.
The final item in the Supplementary Estimate concerns subhead J—Appropriations in Aid—to which I referred briefly a few moments ago.
Receipts in the Forestry Vote depend mainly on sales of timber. The current year's receipts from such sales arise partly from contracts entered into in 1979 and partly from contracts being made in 1980.
I hope that what I have said gives Deputies a good general picture of both sides of my Department and I shall be most interested in their comments. I now commend the Estimate to the House.
