I propose to call the Deputies I have selected in the following order: Deputy Byrne and Deputy Deenihan in respect of matters to the Minister for the Marine and Deputy Crawford and Deputy Finucane in respect of matters to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry. The Deputies are entitled to two minutes in respect of each matter and their statements will be followed immediately by a two minute reply from the appropriate Minister or Ministers. However, as the matters raised by Deputy Crawford and the first matter raised by Deputy Finucane are similar it is proposed that Deputies will make their statements and that the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry — or his Minister of State — will reply to both Deputies. I now call Deputy Byrne.
Adjournment Debate. - Marine and Agriculture, Food and Forestry Matters.
Mr. Byrne
Irish Lights are in the process of decommissioning some and demanning all the lighthouses in Ireland. This process is common to all these islands and the following is singular to the Irish instance: (1) there are no plans for the development of a back-up coastal service and, as one who lives near the Hook Head lighthouse, the oldest in Europe, I am well aware of what is being done by the principal lighthouse keeper and his assistant. Indeed they have saved many lives by spotting trouble before it caused fatalities. This glaring gap will inevitably result in unnecessary fatalities. The process of building watch towers, which had the particular support of the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, has been discontinued. Seven watch towers of this kind were built at great cost to the taxpayer and are now obsolete. The necessity for a manned coastal service has not been addressed; (2) Irish Lights, alone among the three lighthouse companies on these islands, cannot support itself without subvention. Since Government support commenced in 1983 it has risen to the maximum level allowed by current legislation.
Not peculiar to Ireland — but of particular importance — is the weight of the shipowners' lobby in this matter. They claim that they pay too much for the service. As they pay the piper it seems they also call the tune.
The Minister should be aware that the system of dues collection he is abandoning is being adopted in mainland Europe. A narrow-minded concern for finance is outweighing proper concern for the safety of human life. While I understand heavier ships are using satellites for guidance, it is well known that the number of leisure craft is increasing by the day and they have nothing but the lighthouses to offer them protection.
Not alone are the lighthouses being abandoned but so are keepers. Their status as persons who have paid the full rate of PRSI is being exploited on the doubious pretext they are not civil servants. The redundancy being offered may be acceptable to older men but is not acceptable to the younger men.
Under the Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, responsibility for the provision and maintenance of lights services around the coast of Ireland and Britain is vested in three bodies known as the General Lighthouse Authorities, the Commissioners of Irish Lights; Trinity House, and the Commissioners of Northern Lighthouses. The whole system of lights around the coasts of Ireland and Britain is administered as a single financial unit. Expenditure is met from the general lighthouse fund which derives its income from the collection of light dues in Britain and Ireland.
Under the terms of a 1985 financial agreement between the UK and Ireland, the State contributes to the general lighthouse fund an amount equivalent to the difference between 50 per cent of Commissioners of Irish Lights costs in the Republic and the income from light dues collected in the Republic.
Since 1960, the Commissioners of Irish Lights has engaged in an ongoing programme of automating and demanning lighthouses in an effort to achieve a more cost-effective and efficient service. In 1985, the Commissioners of Irish Lights embarked on the final phase of this programme which will see the remaining nine manned lighthouses automated by March 1997.
Up to this, the required redundancies have been achieved through natural wastage or lightkeepers leaving the service on a voluntary basis. I understand 12 lightkeepers have been served with compulsory redundancy notices unfortunately effective from 1 April 1993. The question of redundancies among lightkeepers is an industrial relations matter which is appropriate for settlement between the Commissioners of Irish Lights and the relevant union or under established industrial relations machinery.
The report of the review group on air-sea rescue services, which led to the establishment of the Irish Marine Emergency Service considered the question of the establishment of a visual coast watch service involving lightkeepers, and noted that the cost of the proposal would be in excess of £1 million. The review group considered that mobile watch units would be more effective than fixed watch units, and recommended as a more cost effective solution that the volunteer coast and cliff rescue service be deployed for mobile visual watch when and where required. This recommendation has been implemented under the aegis of the Irish Marine Emergency Service. The review group also noted that the recent extension of the Marine VHF 24 hour listening watch to all coasts provided a ready and easy means of alerting the rescue agencies. The coming into force of national and international rules for the carriage of Emergency Position — Indicating Radio Beacons — will mean that vessels needing assistance will no longer be dependent on the sighting of their distress signals.
I take this opportunity to put on record my appreciation, and that of the Minister, for the lighthouse service which has served this country for generations.
Kerry County Council closed Reenard Pier in 1990 due to its dangerous condition. Closure involved erecting a barrier at the entrance of the pier. In June of that year the Department of the Marine promised to pay 50 per cent of the cost of repairs provided that Kerry County Council paid a portion of the cost and also that the local fishing interests would also bear a similar portion. Both parties agreed to this arrangement. It was estimated that the total cost of carrying out the repairs would be £150,000. Statements made in the local newspapers, and in the chamber of Kerry County Council, suggested that a grant of £75,000 was available from the Department of the Marine. However, no work took place and the pier remained closed in 1990.
In 1991 a deputation of pier users met the then Minister for the Marine, former Deputy Wilson. It was also reported in the local media that the then Minister gave a definite commitment to the delegation that the necessary finance to enable repair works to be carried out on the pier would be made available immediately by his Department. No work was carried out in 1991.
In 1992 a local Fianna Fáil Deputy announced that the then Minister for the Marine, Dr. Woods, was allocting a grant of £5,000 to enable investigative and design work to commence. No work took place during 1992.
I appeal to the Minister of State to make the necessary finance available to enable work to commence immediately on the pier. Activity at Reenard Pier has come to a halt since the pier closed. When the fishing boats come into Reenard Pier, local men have to be employed to unload the fish and, in some cases, trans-shipping the fish to other destinations. Ice, fuel oil, food supplies, mineral water and so forth have to be acquired locally.
I understand also that the owner of Kerry Fish, a local fish processing company has a potential to create 12 full-time jobs if the pier becomes fully operational in the near future. I consider it fair to make the point that this is just another example of broken promises by two former Fianna Fáil Ministers for the Marine. I appeal to the Minister to please not join that group. I appeal to the Minister of State present to give a definite commitment on the future of Reenard Pier.
The pier at Reenard was erected in 1965-66 to cater for the then existing fleet, with an allowance being made or an increase in its size. It was not designed to withstand severe berthing blows from large steel hulled foreign fishing vessels. The responsibility for the repair and maintenance of Reenard Pier rests with Kerry County Council, who were requested to undertake the necessary maintenance works in 1981. The failure to carry out the necessary maintenance works has resulted in a continuing deterioration of the pier to its present state.
The continuous damage inflicted by large fishing vessels berthing at the pier has resulted in the pier's closure, for safety reasons, by Kerry County Council. The most serious damage inflicted has been to the tie bars. These bars literally hold the opposite faces of the pier together. Collapse of the pier is, however, being avoided at present by the sheet piling.
During the latter part of 1992, the Department of the Marine commissioned a consultant's report on the condition of the pier and the remedial repair requirements and cost. These remedial repairs, which would involve repairs to the pier deck slab and ring beam, sheet piling, fendering, mooring rings and, most importantly, the tie bars, are estimated to cost £130,000. As I indicated, the maintenance and repair of this pier is the responsibility of Kerry County Council who would normally be expected to pay for any maintenance costs. However, given the nature of the repair works required at Reenard Pier, the Department of the Marine will provide grant assistance to the council towards the costs.
In view of ongoing development works at other fishing harbours, the priority that has been attached in Valentia Harbour to Portmagee which is more intensively used by local fishing vessels and is the basis of the fishing industry in south Kerry and limited financial resources, the Department of the Marine is unlikely to be in a position to undertake works at Reenard Pier during 1993. However, a new fishery harbour development programme for the 1994-97 period is at present being finalised and the required works at Reenard Pier will be considered in that context.
Another broken promise.
They are the facts.
At least the Minister of State is honest.
I thank the Chair for the opportunity to raise this matter. I urge the Minister to deploy staff from the livestock offices to the farm development offices. Tonight I wish to refer to the great difficulties in this respect in my own constituency, particularly in County Cavan.
The Minister has been notified of the case of a young farmer who has completed his farm development programme and is now awaiting his grant. The job has been passed by the officer concerned but as there is no one in the farm development office to type the required documentation, the farmer cannot be paid his grant. At a time of extraordinarily high interest rates this is very unfair to a young farmer.
I wish also to bring the case of another young farmer to the Minister's notice. This young farmer won first prize in a silage and grass management scheme and he now wants to carry out developments on his farm. The plan has been drawn up by the area officer and sent to the office in Cavan, but, because there are no typists there, it cannot be put into operation.
The person concerned cannot commence the work on his farm until he gets written approval. If that approval is not forthcoming within the next few days he may not be able to proceed with the work this year. As the job relates to his farm buildings and the removal of effluent from his silage pit, he will not be able to commence cutting silage in May. As I said earlier, this young farmer won first prize in silage and grassland production last year. It is vital that the staff be relocated, that young farmers are allowed continue in business and that necessary and useful employment be created. If this farmer's plight is not documented he will not be able to run his farm efficiently, the scheme will fall through and jobs will be lost. At a time of extremely high unemployment, the relocation of staff to Cavan and to other offices throughout the country is vital.
I now call Deputy Finucane, whose first statement is related to that raised by Deputy Crawford.
Many constituents in County Limerick have contacted me regarding the delay in clearing their farm development grants. They have undertaken the work and urgently require the grants. Some of them have gone into further debt while waiting for the grants. There are 27 grant claims, involving a sum of £90,726 awaiting approval in the Limerick office. It is not good enough that the staff involved in this area should be redeployed to the livestock section. It is difficult to reconcile that decision when more than 300,000 people are unemployed. Surely it is possible to hire personnel, even on a temporary basis, rather than allow the present situation to continue?
The Minister indicated that this would be for a temporary period only and that staff would be reassigned to their normal duties at the earliest possible opportunity. I now want the Minister to give a firm commitment and indicate when staff will be provided to clear the farm development grants which are currently being held up in the Limerick office.
I thank Deputies Crawford and Finucane for bringing this important matter before the House. The staff of the FDS were transferred to the livestock section to deal with urgent work arising there. I am sure the Deputies will be pleased to hear that they will be returning to farm development services work on Monday, 15 March 1993, and I assure the Deputies that every effort will be made to expedite the processing of applications for the various grants with a view to making the payments.
The House will now hear a second statement from Deputy Finucane.
I raise the issue of group water schemes in the context of Leader funding of such schemes and the frustration felt by many people in regard to such schemes in County Limerick. I had hoped that adequate provision would have been provided for group water schemes in the recent Estimates. However, a mere £2.5 million was allocated and, with a carry over of £1.5 million from the previous year, only £1 million will be allocated for group water schemes on a national basis this year. There are already approximately 89 schemes awaiting approval in the Department of the Environment, including those in County Limerick to which I have referred. Having regard to this financial provision there is no hope for those 89 schemes and the hundreds of others that are in the pipeline.
I am aware that the Leader programme covers infrastructural projects. As water is a basic requirement and is regarded as a lifeline in many communities, surely a provision could be made in the Leader programme for group water schemes. If they depend on the Department of the Environment for funding, many of the people involved will never have a water supply. The Cohesion Fund which provides funds for both transport and environmental projects does not make provision for group water schemes; it only covers schemes costing millions of pounds. I would encourage the Minister, where feasible, to include group water schemes in the Leader programme.
Leader is the EC Initiative under the Structural Funds which enables groups — private, public or mixed — in rural communities to draw up and implement integrated plans for the development of their own areas. Sixteen groups were selected by the EC Commission for funding in Ireland totalling £35 million on the basis of business plans submitted by them. The main feature of the Leader programme is that the selected groups themselves take decisions on the projects to be funded in their areas subject to compliance with the terms of their business plans and EC and national exclusion criteria. The measures which are eligible for grants include: technical support for rural development; vocational training and assistance for recruitment; rural tourism; small firms, craft enterprises and local services and exploitation and marketing of local agricultural, forest and fishery products.
The position is that the business plans approved for the various Leader groups do not make provision for grant-aiding group water schemes. Public funding has been committed to the 16 selected Leader groups on the basis of these plans. In these circumstances, it would not be open to the groups to provide grant assistance for such works.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 10 March 1993.