For this reason the quality of the fish that goes into the can must be of top quality. All during the summer around our coasts there are hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sprat, the same thing as kippers, sardines and so on, and there is a big market for them. I know one buyer who can get an order as high as 50,000 tonnes in one country for sprat.
The problem is that when the sprat comes around our coast in the summer and the weather is fine to catch them there is a problem because they are feeding and their stomachs are full. In other countries they have developed a method whereby they go out to fish spart with a ring net. They ring their nets around the shoal of sprat and leave them there for a few days. The fish can swim freely within the net but they cannot feed. After one or two days their stomachs are empty and they can be caught live from the net, brought inshore and sold as top quality fish ready for canning. If the fish had been caught with the food in their stomachs and were sent off to the canning factory, canned and then cooked, I am afraid they would not be nice tasty fish to eat.
We know nothing about the processing of fish and the methods other countries use. Since about 1950 the State has put large sums of money into the fishing industry. They provided grants for boats for fishermen, they provided finance for boats by way of loans, but then the fishermen were left to make their own way. The fishermen who were initially grant-aided and funded by the State for boats at that time, probably 40 to 50 foot boats, had only graduated from the currach, the naomhóg or the half-decker. They knew the sea and they knew how to fish, but they knew very little else.
In the early days they took on investments, possibly £18,000 to £50,000 and immediately they had to become not alone a fisherman but they had to become navigators and they had to understand charts without any education whatsoever. They had to be engineers to look after the boat engine, they had to be able to operate radios, they had to learn to use radar and all the other electronics that are installed in boats. They had to learn all these skills to become good fishermen. But then there was another problem. When they landed their fish they then had to become marketing managers to try to find a proper market for their fish and, as well as that, they had to become accountants, and in a lot of cases it was the wife at home who was the accountant and manager. It is fair to say that the bulk of fishermen — I am not in any way downgrading them; I am one of them — never had anything better than second level education simply because those were the times that were in it. I know they have changed now and things are different. They left school at an early age, they went fishing with their fathers, uncles or neighbours and they graduated from that to the bigger boats.
These people are a very hardy, rate breed. It is all right when you are on dry land. Those of you who have never gone out for a week's fishing or for even a day's fishing, except when the weather was fine and you went out to do a bit of angling, do not realise what fishermen have to contend with. When fishermen fish off the Blasket Island or the west coast of Ireland in the middle of winter, with anything up to gale force winds blowing, you would be quite comfortable inside your homes and perhaps have not a thought for the fishermen who are out there trying to make a living. The criticism that has been levelled on fishermen over the years for getting so-called handouts from the State is unfair and untrue. The powers that be on shore are doing their best, but unfortunately finance is missing and, what we are talking about here today, proper research.
When we compare agriculture and fishing, we find in nearly every small village or town in Ireland there is an agricultural adviser. Within 30 or 40 miles of where you live you can go to ACOT or, in the past, to the country committee of agriculture and you can get all the advice you want, but a fisherman is out there on the west coast of Ireland and he has nowhere close to him to turn to for advice. He can get in contact with Bord Iascaigh Mhara or the Department of the Marine, but they are miles away and no structure is set up whereby a fisherman can be advised on what to do. On his own boat he has to be the engineer, he has to see that the engine of his boat is all right and he has to be able to look after a whole lot of expensive complicated equipment. This has changed slightly in recent times.
As the years progressed the National Fisheries School was opened in Green-castle. There is no doubt that the young fishermen who went there got a great education and knowledge of fishing. They came out from that school with certificates of competency on all aspects of fishing, nautical education, vessel maintenance, net mending and so on, but they were not taught management skills. When they left the National Fisheries School they were then quite competent to get their own boats, but they had no financial backup to buy those boats. I am talking about young men aged 21 to 25. They are not rich people; they have not got hundreds of thousands of pounds in the bank.
This is one place where we have failed and where other countries in Europe have come up trumps. In Scotland, for instance, fish buyers and the fish catchers co-ordinate in one catching unit. The fish buyers put up the money in a special arrangement for the boats and the fishermen fish the boats. This is a great arrangement because, from the fisher-man's side of it, if the price is too low he can hit his partner and say "You are not doing enough" and "you are not getting the proper market". From the fish buyers side of it, he can hit the fishermen and say, "You are tied to the pier all day. Why do you not get out there? You are not bringing in enough fish". This is one of the best partnerships that I can see in the fishing industry. Why should fish buyers not invest in fishing boats and why do we not attract them? If that were to happen here the unfortunate thing about it is that, to my knowledge, we would not recognise them for grant aid. I might be wrong, but I do not think I am.
In Spain companies are formed by the fishermen. I have gone to Spain and checked it out. They then go to the bank to borrow money. One of the stipulations of the bank giving them money is that a high ranking person in the bank will then be nominated as a paid director in that company to ensure that the boats are out fishing, that the accounts are right and that everything is in order.
In spite of all my criticism there have been many successful fishermen most notably a Mayo man — I am sure the House will have heard of him — Kevin McHugh — who is the proud owner of the Veronica and more recently the Genesus. The Veronica, a factory fishing boat, employs up to 50 people. To my knowledge she is the biggest privately-owned factory fishing boat in Europe. I remember Kevin McHugh when he started out at about 21 years of age——
