Might I ask the indulgence of the House to permit me to answer a special notice question at this stage instead of at the end of questions, which is the general rule?
Special Notice Question. - Dumping of Fish.
After questions.
Why now? Has the Minister some reason?
Only that I have three appointments. I am, of course, at the disposal of the House, but if the House would permit me to answer it now it would enable me to keep the three appointments which are scheduled for 3.30.
Very well.
asked the Minister for Agriculture if he can state the amount of herring and whiting dumped by Sea Fisheries Association for the week ending 18th November, 1950; further, if he will state whether he proposes to take any steps to prevent a recurrence of the position whereby east coast fishermen have had large quantities of their catches declared in bad condition and unfit for human consumption, despite the fact that the fish in question had been landed on the same morning.
The amount of herring and whiting dumped by the Sea Fisheries Association during the week ended 18th November, 1950, was 1,740 stones. The whiting was small and ungutted and was unsaleable due to the presence on the market of adequate supplies of better class whiting. The herring dumped was unsuitable for kippering because of its small size and the freshing trade did not need it, as heavy supplies of herring were available during the week. I understand that the dumpings referred to in the second part of the Deputy's question can be attributed to similar causes, and not to the fact that the fish was "in bad condition and unfit for human consumption".
Instructions have been given that where surplus herring is left over when the market closes they are to be disposed of for human consumption direct or through hawkers gratuitously, but this procedure must be carefully supervised lest it might destroy existing commercial outlets for whiting and herring.
Am I to take from the Minister's reply that the instructions which he indicates have been given include recompense for the fishermen who have won this fish for the market?
The Deputy will realise that if fishermen bring to the market small whiting, ungutted, they are wholly unsaleable. The fishermen who bring them know that, and they have been repeatedly told that, if whiting is to be sold in the market at a time of abundance, it must be of a certain size and it must be put on the market gutted, otherwise nobody will buy it. It is not possible to guarantee that whatever quantity of fish is put on the market on a given day will be accepted and paid for. The best we can do in regard to shoal pelagic fish is to sell it to the best advantage we can, in the market available to us; and, in the case of edible fish, to see that it is passed out, if needs be for nothing, to the poor rather than be thrown back into the sea, while in regard to inedible fish, as some of the small ungutted whiting could be described, to pass it to the knacker for conversion into protein feed or potash manure for the land.
Does the Minister intend to take steps to ensure that when this situation recurs, as it seems to do annually, in times of glut, when these fish are produced by the fishermen, by the same amount of labour as they would put into the production of fish all of which could be sold, there will be some method whereby these men will be recompensed for their labour? Does he propose to have any such plans put into operation now or in the future?
I put it to the Deputy that he, having intimate knowledge of this trade, does the industrious fishermen no service by staking a claim of that kind for fishermen who would go out with a seine net and rake in shoals of small whiting which they dump ungutted on the Dublin market, thus destroying the market for the hardworking fishermen who have brought in large whiting, prime fish and fat herring. I am bound to inform the Deputy that when such fishermen go out with a seine net to bring in shoaling whiting in daylight and dump it on the market, where hard working men are trying to sell fat herring that they have fished and caught by night, my sympathy is with the hard working men. For their herring I want to get a market and small ungutted whiting will go to the knacker, to be converted into meal and what it fetches those who caught it will get.
Major de Valera
When you get the Scotch skippers you will have no waste.
Which you let in. I cannot keep them out, as a result of your agreement.