asked the Minister for Lands and Fisheries if he will state, having regard to the importance of the herring and salmon drift-net fisheries in County Donegal, why no representative of that county has been placed upon the directorate of the Sea Fisheries Co-operative Association; and whether he proposes to take any further steps in the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Donegal and Sea Fisheries Association.
The invitation to serve as first Directors of the Sea Fisheries Co-operative Association were not issued on the basis of regional representation but solely with reference to experience and capacity successfully to carry through an undertaking of considerable difficulty. The Rules of the Association will, of course, provide for the election of later Directors by the members of the Association. I do not think that the number of the first Directors could usefully be increased.
Will the Minister assure us that, at any rate, in the meantime the interests of the Donegal fisheries will not be overlooked, as one's experience is that where a particular district is not represented it is frequently overlooked.
I do not quite know what the Deputy means. The operations of the Sea Fisheries Co-Operative Association will include the whole of the Saorstát and, presumably, the Association will be as much interested in Donegal as in any other part of the country.