I am availing of this opportunity, probably the last I shall have, to refer to a motion on yesterday's Order Paper in my name reading as follows:
That Dáil Éireann deplores the announcement by the Minister for Fisheries and Forestry of the proposed amendment of the Foyle Fishery Act, 1952, to reduce the salmon netting season by one week, to prohibit the use of driftnets in the open sea during daylight and to extend the weekly close time for commercial salmon fishing from 60 hours to 72 hours.
I had that motion put down as a result of a meeting of fishermen operating in Lough Foyle, I should say the driftnet fishermen operating in Lough Foyle and Greencastle and the driftnet fishermen operating in the River Foyle from Carrigans to Porthaul. While other Deputies in the House may take a very broad view of the fishing industry throughout the length and breadth of the State around the coastline from Carlingford Lough to Lough Swilly, I propose to confine my remarks to the fishermen in the constituency of North East Donegal, namely, those who operate Lough Foyle, the River Foyle and the sea between the two demarcation lines that determine the Foyle Fisheries Commission catchment area. I am not satisfied that the present Foyle Fisheries Commission have succeeded. In fact their track record shows that they have clearly failed.
The Foyle Fishery industry is one which goes back many years, right to the very plantation of Ulster when Anglo-Irish people recognised the wealth of salmon in Lough Foyle and set up an organisation to deal with it. It has had a stormy passage over the years and I do not propose to go into its history. Certain difficulties arose when this State was established in 1922, difficulties which were resolved only in 1952 with the setting up of the Foyle Fisheries Commission. The Foyle Fisheries Commission were given full responsibility by this Parliament and by the British authorities to operate and develop the salmon fishing of Lough Foyle and their catchment area. Since they took over, the fishing season and indeed the fishing week have been shortened. In the time I have been a Member of this House, I have read with monotonous regularity statements issued by the Foyle Fisheries Commission, by the Department of Fisheries here in Dublin and by their counterparts in Belfast explaining in great detail, in carefully chosen words, the need to conserve fish, to conserve salmon. Therefore it was regrettable that they had to curtail the fishing season or the fishing week.
If the salmon fishing has failed in Lough Foyle there is nobody to blame but those people responsible for its development. The fishermen who operate from Greencastle, those who operate the Lough and those who operate the River Foyle do so because they want to earn a living and it is in their interests that the industry be developed. Nobody would be more pleased to see the industry go from strength to strength than they. While it is to be acknowledged that there is some abuse as far as poaching is concerned, it is no worse than in other fishing areas. It is a very lame excuse on the part of the Foyle Fisheries Commission to say that there is far too much illegal fishing in Lough Foyle, the deep sea end of it, the Lough and the River Foyle. It just does not wear any longer because the fishermen themselves know it is not a fact, that it has not increased or decreased over the years that they have been operating there. It is no greater or no less a problem than it is in other fishing areas. But in other fishing areas there is not a crisis situation such as there is in Lough Foyle at present, where the entire fishing industry is threatened with collapse. About that there must be no doubt. And if it is threatened with collapse, which most of us recognise as a very serious situation at present, the responsibility rests clearly and squarely with those people whose responsibility it is to develop the Foyle and who have not succeeded.
I do not criticise them unduly. All I or anybody else has to do is to look at the track record. In 1952, when they took over the management of the Foyle, it was a thriving industry. I remember as a very young boy going down the river bank and experiencing the excitement of watching the fishermen pull their nets in and count the salmon they had caught, a most exciting exercise for a young boy. I remember that clearly. It is not that many years ago, but such things no longer exist. It is a rare occasion now that one walks along the river bank and sees the salmon nets being pulled in, with the fishermen, as they say, drawing a blank or having one salmon in the net. This is not the fault of the fishermen who operate the Lough or the river, it must surely be the responsibility of those people whose job it is to promote it.
I have spoken publicly about this in other places. I want to put on record — and perhaps there is no time more appropriate than the present, because rumour has it that this House will be dissolved in about an hour's time with a resultant general election — that should there be a change of Government, which I hope there will be, and should I be either a backbench Member supporting that Government or part of it, whatever role I may have to play in it I will be asking for a public investigation into the handling, management and running of Lough Foyle, not because of any bitterness, personal objection or animosity I might have towards any member — I do not even know the names of the four commissioners at present — but rather as one coming from an area which prided itself on the fact that they had a thriving salmon fishing industry, which has now collapsed. I share the concern of those fishermen at the manner in which their fishing industry has been allowed to collapse.
Because of that deep interest I want to pledge here and now to this House and to the fishermen whose livelihood is at stake that in the event of a change of Government, and even of there not being a change of Government, I will be speaking publicly on their behalf on every occasion that I have the duty to do so. As I have said, through maybe not fully, in the event of a change of Government I will be asking whatever new Minister takes over fisheries to have a full and thorough investigation into the affairs, running and management of the Foyle Fisheries Commission.
The Foyle Fisheries Commission are unique in many ways. They are one of the few organisations in Ireland who straddle the Border. They are one of the few organisations who were given full autonomy and full responsibility to organise the running of the fishing industry in a specially designated area without interference from this Government or the British authorities. They were allowed to operate without outside interference. Maybe that was a weakness. Maybe they did not appreciate fully the autonomy and responsibility which they were given. In fact, the records show that if they did appreciate them they did not put them to full use. There was no one telling them what to do. They were allowed to do as they thought best, but they failed. I am surprised that the Ministers for Fisheries and Forestry, present and former, have not noted the fact that the salmon catches from deep sea drift netting, from the Lough drift net fishermen and the draft net fishermen who operate the rivers have fallen to such an extent that extreme measures should have been taken.
As I say, the Foyle Fisheries Commission were unique. They had no interference from outside bodies. They were given the freedom to do what they thought was best, and whatever judgements they have taken were wrongly taken. They believed that by reducing the salmon fishing week and the fishing season more fish would get to the spawning beds, therefore creating larger stocks. That is a fair assumption for ordinary individuals who are concerned only about the number of salmon they can catch per week, the livelihood they have to earn, how they are going to repay BIM for extremely large loans on fishing vessels and equipment, how they are going to repay other loans and how they are going to survive. That is the extent of the interest that most of the fishermen had initially, and while they do have a further interest in hoping or seeing that the industry will develop, it is not their immediate responsibility to do something about it. Yet now the people whose responsibility it is have failed them and they are entitled to ask what has gone wrong. They are entitled to say now that this new proposal by the Foyle Fisheries Commission to reduce the fishing season and the fishing week is no more valid than the ones which have failed. At the outset, without the knowledge and experience and without seeing those proposals in practice and examining the results, it could have been argued by the commissioners, by the Department of Fisheries and by the British authorities that these steps were necessary. However, these steps have already proved to be failures.
I have not got the time factor at the tips of my fingers, but when I was a boy the fishing week in Lough Foyle started at 6 o'clock on Monday morning and concluded at 6 o'clock on Saturday morning. There were two days per week which were closed. The weekend was closed and generally speaking those two days of non-fishing on the River Foyle were observed by the majority of fishermen. Admittedly, we will always have the poacher, but he was resented in those days because the licensed fishermen were able to earn a living during the licensed hours of fishing. The fishing season started some time at the end of April and did not conclude until the end of August. Now we have the fishing week cut down to literally hours and the fishing season reduced to a position where it is now impossible for fishermen to earn a living. They have so much time off the river that the hours of non-fishing on the river are open to abuse for those individuals who want to fish outside hours.
The whole policy of the Foyle Fisheries Commission has failed. I do not have to say it; the record shows it, and I hope that the Minister when he is replying will refer to this because there is general disquiet among all the fishermen whom I have spoken to, ordinary, sensible men who use the commonsense which God gave them to good ends, men who can arrive at simple and fair conculsions. They know that the fishing on the River Foyle is now in a very dangerous situation and they do not know what happened, they just know that it has happened. They know also that those people responsible who have been telling them through the years "Do it our way and we will ensure that this is one of the richest salmon fisheries in the world" were wrong. When other fisheries have improved it is sad that the Foyle has gone the opposite way, and there is no reason for it. The game has been played according to the dictates of the Foyle Fisheries Commission. If any public representative spoke out of turn or was too harsh in his criticism of the Foyle Fisheries Commission or their activities, or regarding good public relations on the part of former employees, I would have got a telephone message asking me if I would be available to speak to them. I gladly did so, and listened to their point of view and proceeded to try to talk to the fishermen to find out if there was a point of compromise. That game is over. There are no telephone calls any more. Even within the ranks of the Foyle Fisheries Commission, the employees who work for them know now that the whole thing has failed, and they do not any more criticise public representatives such as myself for being unduly harsh in my criticism of the affairs of the commission.
It is getting late in the day and maybe the Minister wants to reply to this debate before the Dáil adjourns at 5 p.m. and probably is dissolved before 6 p.m. Because I will not have an opportunity of moving item No. 88 on the Order Paper I ask the Minister to give a pledge to this House that the terms of my motion will be complied with and that he will not sign the order put forward by the Foyle Fisheries Commission until he has a public investigation into it. I am not saying that there is anything illegal in what the Foyle Fisheries Commission or those people who work on their staff have-done. I am not suggesting, nor do I want it to be interpreted that I am suggesting, that there have been any malpractices. I am saying clearly without apology to anyone that since the Foyle Fisheries Commission took over in 1952 their records show clearly that the number of salmon caught in those days as against the number of salmon now being caught has fallen so drastically in spite of all policy decisions taken by the Foyle Fisheries Commission, in spite of all the promises, all the money spent and all the assurances given.
The Foyle Fisheries Commission are in a serious state. The livelihood of the fish ermen who operate from Greencastle, the livelihood of the fishermen who operate Lough Foyle and the River Foyle, who need to supplement their annual income with a few hundred pounds from salmon catches, is being destroyed. They no longer have security in going to the Foyle Fisheries Commission, taking out a licence, buying a boat, and buying the nets to fish the lough, the deep sea or the river. After making that investment and putting great effort into it so that at the end of the day they would have money in their pockets, they now have nothing. It is a sad state of affairs that after almost 40 years we arrive at this stage.
We may have criticised foreign interests being involved in Irish affairs but the Irish society, which first set up fishing in Lough Foyle provided a livelihood for fishermen in that area. Those people were always accused of taking too much money away and abusing their rights in relation to the Foyle but the amazing thing is that under the Irish society fishing was never threatened. The men who worked there were sure of their employment and of pay at the end of the week. The number of salmon caught was stable. I was glad to see the end of this Irish society and to see the Foyle Fisheries Commission set up. However, the catches under the Irish society were never as low as they are at the moment.
I want the Minister to pay particular attention to the motion which I have on the Order Paper, to read it carefully and to realise that it reflects the attitude of the fishermen who earn a living on Lough Foyle, the river Foyle and the deep sea out of Lough Foyle. As the Minister should represent their interests I want him to assure the House that he will not sign the order put forward by the commission until he is absolutely certain that the policies they are pursuing are in the best interests of all concerned. I doubt those policies are in the best interests of all the people concerned because this is a repetition of what they did last year, the previous year, ten years ago and even 20 years ago. The only answer the Foyle Fisheries Commission can come up with is a shorter fishing week, a shorter fishing season. That approach has not worked and will not be the answer.
There will have to be greater dialogue between the fishermen and the Foyle Fisheries Commission. The relationship between the fishermen and the commission has broken down so much that the fishermen now treat the commission with contempt. That is not in the best interests of the commission, the industry or the fishermen. I acknowledge that somebody has to be in charge. The person in charge can only pursue a successful policy if he has the full consent and the good wishes of the fishermen who operate the system. I want an assurance from the Minister while the Government are waiting on a new Government to be elected, that he will not abuse the powers he has at the moment and sign the order which the Foyle Fisheries Commission have asked him to sign.
Will the Minister explain to the House why there is such a delay in the development of Greencastle Harbour? This was one of the areas identified by the cross-Border study initiated by Deputy Garret FitzGerald as Minister for Foreign Affairs during the National Coalition period of office. The former manager in County Donegal, Mr. John B. Williams, and his counterpart in Derry city, deserve a lot more credit than was given to them. They worked very hard to try to get people on both sides of the Border to agree to terms of reference which would make it possible for a cross-Border study to take place without suspicion in some quarters north of the Border.
They came up with certain proposals. Greencastle pier was one of the areas identified as being worthy of EEC support. I was told that Brussels would pay 50 per cent of the cost and that the Irish and British Governments would each pay 25 per cent of the cost. There has been a great delay in the development of Greencastle. We occasionally hear that a Fianna Fáil Deputy in the county has been advised by the Minister for Fisheries that a certain stage has been reached or a local Fianna Fáil councillor may be told the same thing. There is no evidence of any development which has taken place at Greencastle which would not have taken place if the cross-Border study was not undertaken. This was the first thing involving the Irish Government and the British Government in the regional fund. It should have been supported by both Governments but it was allowed to go by default. There was a lot of speculation about it. The former Minister for Foreign Affairs, who is now Commissioner in Europe, welcomed it with open arms when he took over from Deputy Garret FitzGerald in 1977. He announced that £40 million was to be spent there although I understood that £50 million was to be spent. It took about three months to establish that the figure was £40 million. Where is this money which was to be spent on cross-Border communications? I do not see any evidence of it in the Donegal region. If it is being spent it must be north of the Border.
I do not see any extraordinary achievement at Greencastle as a result of that study. The honest conclusion I have come to is that the study told us on paper things we already knew. It brought together comprehensively in three volumes details that had to be attended to in that area. That is all it gave. There has been no support from the British Government for the development of Greencastle and the EEC seem to have lost interest.
When we come back to this House I will ask the new Government to fully support the proposals made in the cross-Border study for the development of Greencastle. This is one fishing port which has been developed in a major way in the 20 years I have been in public life. It services mostly Donegal people, but it is there to service people from County Derry, too. This ties in with the idea of a united island.
The Foyle Fisheries Commission are responsible to the people on both sides of the Border. This Government have given less attention to the Derry fishermen than they have to the fishermen of County Donegal. Not very long ago the present Minister went unannounced to a Fianna Fáil Party function in that area. He did not even tell the Foyle Fisheries Commission he was going. He passed on the Donegal bank of the river while the commission's offices are on the Derry side. While this might have been a blank spot on his part, I do not think that a Minister who is concentrating on his work——
