To-day I addressed two questions to the Minister for Lands and Fisheries, one dealing with the necessity for erecting landing places or slips on the islands of Innishmeane and Innisherrer, and another question dealing with the necessity for a proper landing place on the mainland for the islands of Gola, Innishmeane and Innisherrer. The question I put to the Minister in connection with the necessity for landing places on the mainland is as follows:—
To ask the Minister for Lands and Fisheries whether he is aware that great hardships, danger and financial loss are experienced by the fishermen from the islands of Gola, Innishmeane and Innisherrer, owing to the fact that there is no suitable landing place on the mainland available for them nearer than Kincasslagh or Burtonport, and whether he will make the necessary arrangements to have a suitable pier or landing place constructed at Magheragallon.
The Minister in his reply stated:—
My attention has already been drawn by Deputy Law and others to the request for additional landing accommodation at Magheragallon. I am not aware of any hardship on the island fishermen due to lack of landing facilities in that district. There are three landing places on the mainland convenient to these islands, none of them being more than two miles distant. There is a good pier at Magheragallon, and I cannot recommend any expenditure from State sources on building another landing place there.
The reply the Minister gave me to-day was so inaccurate that I could not let it go unchallenged. I do not know whether the Minister prepared the reply himself, but I can tell him it was absolutely inaccurate. If it were prepared by some officials in his Department the only thing I can say is that they supplied him with wrong information. The Minister states: that he was not aware of any hardship due to lack of landing facilities from the three landing places. I suppose he was referring to Bunbeg, Carrick and Magheragallon. He stated in his reply that there is a good pier at Magheragallon. I wonder was he sincere in that. Naturally the conclusion about a pier is that a pier should be a place where boats can land. Is the Minister aware that the present pier is blocked up with sandbanks and that the fishermen are not able in all tides to effect a landing? When the tide is out no boat can land. If the tide is low they have to wait until the tide comes in with the result that there is serious delay and loss caused and the fish are classed as overday fish or comparatively stale fish.
[An Leas-Cheann Comhairle took the Chair.]
Is the Minister aware that practically no fish have been landed at Carrick owing to the fact that no buyers come there as there is no road to the pier? If the Minister wanted to make Carrick pier a proper one, he would have to have the rocks removed at the east side, and the pier extended forty feet seaward. It would be necessary to construct a road if fish are to be landed there. As to the pier at Bunbeg, is the Minister aware that herring or salmon can only be landed there at high tide? Sometimes when fishermen land herring at Bunbeg, if the tide recedes they have to remain on the open pier during cold winter nights, perhaps for seven hours, because their boats are stranded. That has happened scores of times. The Minister may say that fishing in that area is not very important. I would point out that there are approximately 100 fishermen operating there and about 22 boats, most of them open boats. During the year ending November, 1931, the catch of herring, excluding salmon, was approximately 3,000 cran. The people are experts in the fishing industry, and they believe that if there were proper landing facilities at Magheragallon the catches would be larger. They believe they might get up to 10,000 cran of herring per annum. The fishing cannot be developed owing to the handicaps from which the people suffer. Very often fishermen from the islands have to proceed to Kincasslagh, a distance of eight miles, in order to land fish. Notwithstanding what the Minister says, that there are good landing places at Magheragallon, I think if he makes inquiries he will find that that is not a fact. The Minister knows the district comparatively well, and he knows that it is a hardship to have to go six or eight miles in an open boat, particularly during the winter months, in order to earn a livelihood. Those engaged in the fishing industry believe that the proper place for a pier is at Magheragallon, a little to the north side of the graveyard. There is plenty of deep water there, and comparatively little expenditure would enable the fishermen, who are struggling against adverse conditions, to eke out a livelihood.
As the Minister is aware, and as the records will prove, the Congested Districts Board had a place at Magheragallon, where there is deep water, mapped out for a pier. Owing to the fact that the Congested Districts Board was dissolved the work was not carried out and, as a result, the fishermen are still suffering hardships. The Minister is also aware that curers do not attend at Carrick, Bunbeg or Magheragallon because the trawlers cannot land there. If there were proper landing places the curers would go there and additional employment would be given, especially during the winter months when the men are practically idle. I also raised a question about the provision of landing slips at Innishmeane and Innisherrer, and I hope the Minister will reconsider his decision on the matter. I may be asked where is the money to come from. In the financial year 1928-29 this House voted for marine works, and for the erection of small landing slips, £2,500. Only £1,093 was expended on marine works leaving a balance of £1,427 unexpended. It was alleged by officials in the Minister's Department that no requisitions for landing slips had been received. That is not so, as requisitions were sent from the islands concerned. In 1925-26 £21,638 was unexpended according to the Appropriation Accounts, in 1926-27, £14,839 was unexpended, and again in 1927-28, £11,991 was unexpended.
The Minister is aware that Recommendation 69 of the Gaeltacht Commission Report recommended that expenditure be incurred in providing small slips and breakwaters and in repairing some existing ones. The Executive Council issued a White Paper dealing with the report in which it was stated that money was at present available for the erection of landing slips in places where these were necessary. I submit to the Minister that landing slips are necessary on the two islands I have mentioned and I submit further that it would be worth while for his Department to expend the necessary money to erect a proper pier at Magheragallon. The Minister in his reply said there is a good pier there, but I would ask him to send an inspector there and I am sure that he will report that my statement is absolutely correct—that the pier is blocked up with sand banks and that the fishermen at times cannot land there. I submit, in view of the recommendation in the Gaeltacht report, the statement made in the White Paper, and the attempt which is being made at present to improve the sea fishing industry through the Sea Fisheries Association, that it is absolutely necessary that a proper pier should be erected at Magheragallon and also landing slips on the two islands.