asked the Minister for Defence if he is aware that fish stocks are seriously threatened by foreign trawlers; and the action he proposes to take to protect these stocks.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Fish Stocks.
3.
The sea area within the exclusive fishery limits of the State is patrolled by vessels of the Naval Service as frequently as possible having regard to the resources of the service. It has been decided to have another all-weather protection vessel built for the service.
Can the Minister state the number of patrol boats we have available at present for this service?
Four.
Is the Minister satisfied that that number of boats can afford sufficient protection to our fishing stocks?
I am not so satisfied. In fact, I am very dissatisfied. But the best I can do is get permission from the Government to build a new vessel. The best advice I can get is that we need more than one, certainly many more. But an all-weather fisheries protection vessel such as we are building, named "Déirdre", is necessary at this stage. We are building this vessel and it will be some time before we eliminate the difficulty we experienced when we were left with insufficient boats.
Can the Minister state the cost of providing one of the boats he mentioned?
These seem to be separate questions, Deputy.
I can give the cost of the last boat—a little over £1 million. The Deputy can guess just as I can how much costs have risen recently.
May I ask, arising further out of the reply to the question——
A final supplementary, Deputy. We must make some progress at Question Time.
In view of the cost of providing the large type of vessel now in operation, would the Minister consider the possibility of setting up some kind of coastguard service in which smaller boats could be provided at a cheaper cost and, in which circumstances, a better protection service might be provided for our fishermen and fishing stocks?
The nature of the weather at sea off our coasts, and particularly off the west coast, means that the most practical provision—as I am advised by the naval authorities —is an all-weather, I stress that, an all-weather fishery protection vessel. These can be anywhere around our coasts in a matter of less than a day. That means also that we can have them in the sort of weather in which large modern trawlers can operate; where they can trawl in conditions of up to gale force winds and we can have them where we want them. That is why the other would be impractical as a first step. It may be developed when we have bought other all-weather fishery protection vessels.
Did the Minister announce the placing of an order for one of those vessels recently in the Cork dockyard?
The Deputy is widening the scope of this question.
No, I did not so announce. What I announced was that Irish Shipping were acting as agents for us in this matter, that they were advising that we had a time schedule which was not satisfactory to us and that I sincerely hoped it would be built in the Verolme Dockyard and I believe it will.