In his contribution, Deputy Deasy remarked that the herring survey being conducted in the Celtic Sea should have been undertaken 20 years ago. Perhaps that is correct, but it is easy to be wise with hindsight and very few people would have made that statement 20 years ago. It could be said also that in the present situation, when mackerel is in abundance, a survey might be needed now. This is a situation we are monitoring. We are not talking about mature mackerel that are caught off our coasts but we are very concerned that the small juvenile mackerel off the coast of Cornwall would not be fished out.
Deputy Deasy said also that the development of the Irish fishing industry has been a successive failure. He did not entirely blame us for this because he was noble enough to say that the lack of will on the part of every successive Government, none more so than the present, have been the cause of this failure. The doleful dirge of the Deputy reminds me of Hanrahan who said that we would all be ruined before the year was out, except that Hanrahan was only in the halfpenny place where Deputy Deasy is concerned. It might be well to remember that Disraeli said once that it is easy to be critical at the expense of being correct. Deputy White, too, might take that lesson to heart. He claimed that our imports of fish were running as high as our exports of this commodity. I would remind him that the value of our imports of fish in 1979 was £16.1 million whereas the value of our exports was more than twice that amount at £32.2 million.
Deputy Deasy spoke also of many thousands of disillusioned fishermen. I doubt if there are thousands of fishermen, not to mention disillusioned fishermen. However, I met fishermen at Dunmore East who had some complaints to make and some disappointment to express, but I did not get any impression of disillusionment or of despair among them. I did not find any sign of despair either among the fishermen in Donegal. Mackerel are now being sold at £100 per ton and up to £120 in some cases. That is the position not only in Killybegs but elsewhere. Sprat, too, which are to be found all around our coasts, are very lucrative.
The person who said we have 400 boats on loans on the BIM list and who referred to the colossal failure rate I would refer to a previous Government in which three Ministers were removed not alone from office but from the Dáil. In regard to money owed on boats, BIM will look at every case individually and will recast the loan up to three times if they feel that there is an opportunity of paying.
Deputy Deasy sought an intervention system for fish. We have such an intervention system which applies to the main species. We have endeavoured to get the species enlarged and to improve the price paid to fishermen. Deputy Deasy also referred to scientific information in regard to species of fish being available to us. The Deputy referred to the Spaniards who fished particularly for hake. One sometimes wonders at the merits of these surveys. West Germany, East Germany and some of the Communist countries have carried out surveys in regard to the incidence of blue whiting off our coasts. This is an industrial fish very rich in protein but very hard to process and I am not so sure if we should devote our resources to this when we find it hard enough to sell whiting and cod which we can catch. Scientific information available to ICES is made available to us.
Deputy Deasy also referred to the problem of French illegal fishing and asked me to raise it at EEC level. I would refer the Deputy to a recent RTE programme which would help to highlight our situation. We do not have to go to Boulogne to find illegal fishermen. I would be a bigger fool than Deputy Deasy thinks if I were to talk at EEC level about illegal fishing and what we are doing.
In relation to our attitude to the arrest of the Dutch vessel recently, on Monday last a Dutch vessel was arrested off Donegal. The vessel was not observed by the Navy but its illegal fishing was reported by Killybegs skippers who alleged that the Dutch vessel was fishing inside of 12 miles and had cut their nets. The vessel did not at first stop when the Navy challenged them. They were charged with illegal entry and obstruction but, following a ruling by the High Court that the skipper and crew should be released, I understand that the charges were not pursued in the District Court and that the boat was being released. Prosecutions are a matter for the Attorney General and I have not yet received a report in the case. I am concerned to ensure that fishing law is enforced and I will closely examine the circumstances when I get the report. The Navy have been active in relation to sightings and boardings of fishing vessels in the Celtic Sea. From May to October of this year 24 Dutch vessels were sighted and 19 were boarded, and 58 French vessels were boarded. This is great evidence of the work of the Navy but no evidence of illegal fishing or illegal nets was found.
Deputy Deasy referred to marketing——
