Today I attempted to raise by way of Private Notice Question the imminent danger of the possible closing down of boatyards operating under the aegis of An Bord Iascaigh Mhara. I was told that, on information supplied by the Department of Fisheries and Forestry, there was no urgency about raising this matter, that it was on-going, and could be raised by way of ordinary question. As a result the Chair's hands were tied and he could do nothing about it.
While that information was being delivered to me, information was being conveyed to the union and the representatives from Killybegs, Dingle and Baltimore that their fears were all too well founded. A staggering announcement was made to them without any preamble, without any consultation whatsoever, that the total staff employed in the three yards would be reduced from 241 to 159, commencing with large numbers being deprived of employment on 31 May next. If things are allowed to continue, on that date 45 men will be paid off in the Killybegs yard and ten in the Dingle yard. On 31 January 1980 a further 35—making a total of 80—will be paid off in Killybegs. On the same date 19 will be paid off in Dingle. In July, 26 will be paid of in Baltimore which, added to the 24 who will have gone already, will make a total of 50 to be made redundant there over the next year and three months.
After July 1980 the total staffs employed will be: in Killybegs, 34; in Baltimore, ten; in Dingle, six. The intention, clearly stated, is that repairs only will be carried out in these yards in the future. I ask the Minister what sort of boats will be presented for repair at yards with such depleted staffs? There will not be any work, repair or otherwise, if this mad scheme goes through as announced today.
Today I accused the Department of Fisheries and Forestry of being less than honest in the information supplied to the General Office and to the Ceann Comhairle. I repeat that now. Dishonest information was given to the Chair today. It is in keeping with the information given as an aside by the Minister a couple of weeks ago. In reply to another question he did not give us to believe that we would see the complete disappearance in a very short while of boat building in the three State-owned yards run by BIM.
The reason given is that there have been very big losses. The figure of £1 million has been mentioned. Is it not rather strange that only three years ago Killybegs, for example, was making a profit? Shortly before that 156 people were employed. Apprentices were being trained by an apprentice training officer. He disappeared two years ago and has not been replaced. The question is: why? Was that the beginning of the run down? If no apprentices were being taken on, had it been pre-determined that the yard in Killybegs and the other yards were on their way out? Since 1976 we have had the most amazing example of complete irresponsibility, of a scandalous approach by BIM, which reflected on the Minister and his Department.
We have had since then the most amazing example of complete irresponsibility, of a scandalous approach by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara, reflecting on the Minister and his Department—that the top naval architect attached to An Bord Iascaigh Mhara was moved at that stage into a different department. His place was not filled until very recently. For two years that all-important position was vacant. Yet the man had not left the outfit. Rather he was moved to another Department, leaving no naval architect available to advise on the new skills required in the pioneering construction at the boatyard in Killybegs of two new types of craft, the biggest type of timber fishing boat ever built in this country. Around the time that they would have been coming into being the naval architect was moved into another Department, not replaced for two solid years and only recently replaced but to what avail—except to be there to wave goodbye to the workers when they are being paid off in the months ahead.
That is not an isolated incident. There was also the disappearance at that time of another very important man, a design draftsman, in 1976, who perhaps fore-saw what was coming and took a job with another organisation, and who was not replaced until quite recently also. Therefore, there were the two top men going in 1976 at a time when there was real need for them to help workers in the yards to accomplish on these new, larger boats what they had never done before. But these men were not there, nor were they replaced, nor was any attempt made to replace them. So the workers had to do the best they could with totally new approaches, new designs, with teething troubles that could not possibly have been envisaged and without the technical back-up absolutely essential at any time to run a boatyard competently and well. They had none, and those were two only. Right down the line there were others. Gone since 1976 was the design engineer. Gone in mid-1977 was the assistant engineer. Gone in October 1977 was the orders processor, again not replaced. Gone in October 1978 was the customs clearance officer, who might not appear to be very important but who was part of the on-going operation that was the boatyard's business in so far as An Bord Iascaigh Mhara were concerned. He was not replaced, there would be no need for him in the future, so he gets out and nobody is put in his place. Then there was the departure in June 1977 of the yard engineer in Killybegs who was not replaced. Gone also in December 1978 was the chargehand. There was no question of replacing these people because there was no future for the boatyard. An Bord Iascaigh Mhara knew it and I presume also the Minister. There were, further, three drawing office apprentice recruits who were due in the middle of last year. Of course there has not been any apprentice training officer there for the past two years and no intention of having any new trained tradesmen. Therefore that position would not have been filled either. Then we discover that the appointment of the works programmer for Killybegs was postponed for the last eight months. And we are not finished at that. There was the yard manager who left last year and who has not been replaced. There were three fitter chargehands who left in 1977 and 1978, one of whom was not replaced.
Let us look at the whole picture since 1976. Take the Minister's statement at the launching of a craft in 1977 when, in a very expansive mood, he talked of the great expansion that would take place, particularly in the steel boat construction of the future. Where has that great thought gone? What has happened to it and in its place what have we got? Nothing, except redundancies, closures, near bankruptcy, through no fault of the workers but because of the absolute neglect of those whose job it is to run these boatyards, not alone in Killybegs but in Dingle and Baltimore as well. I ask the Minister to hold a full, public sworn inquiry into this matter in order that the total facts may be elicited, that the blame may be put where it belongs. In the meantime there should be a complete stay put on the decision announced today that there should begin in the month of May a rundown of these yards to the point of their extinction a matter of 18 months thereafter.
What has the Minister to say about the design people who were brought in from outside, while no staff in An Bord Iascaigh Mhara were replaced to make up for those who had gone or moved elsewhere in 1976? What about the three outside consultancy firms; how much did they cost and how much were they paid a week? Three different firms were brought in in succession to do the fittings, drawings and so on, in an endeavour to change certain aspects of the design of these new, big timber craft. Van der Swan was one; Yard was another and Workforce was a third. Is there any truth in the rumour that all three were working on similar designs for the same boat, that none of the three designs, plans or drawings was capable of being applied to the said boat and that the work people in Killybegs—denuded of all the technical expertise not alone in Dublin but even some of their own in Killybegs—had to make do and try and finish these craft in spite of the outside consultants, in spite of An Bord Iascaigh Mhara, in spite of the fact that the technical people, the naval engineer was sitting in Dublin doing something he could have been doing equally well and probably better than most others because he was good? Why, of all times, was he taken away in 1976 when they were embarking on this new timber boat, the biggest ever built here?
Then we are told that Killybegs has lost the greater portion of this overall figure of £1 million. This is given as justification for wiping out the livelihoods of those now employed and the increasing number that could be employed in the future if the yards were run as they should be, as business operations and not merely as a sort of side piece attached to the fishery development operations of An Bord Iascaigh Mhara. In no sense should they be allowed run the yards and the fish promotion operation at the same time. There should be a separate company. Let one think in terms of going into one's bank manager, wanting to buy something from him and having to borrow the money from him. That is what has been done for a considerable time—borrowing the money, getting the loan approvals and grants from An Bord Iascaigh Mhara and, at the same time, doing a deal with them to get good value for the fishermen in the boat that will be provided for them. Then to have these people treated in the way in which they have been—that the yards are denuded of the necessary technical know-how at this critical time.
The overall result must be that the teething troubles, the lack of technical expertise adds up to the growing pains that were there, with no attention capable of being given and losses being incurred as a result. But development costs are always incurred in the biggest of organisations. Take even the big-gest—the Ford Motor Company—how many millions do they spend on a design, on the tooling-up when they have found the right design, which amount is eventually written off against their sales? Here we have had the teething troubles without assistance. The losses are put down to the yard, saying that the men are no good. How could they be any good? How could they give of their best? How is it that some of the craft on the water today finished by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara yards, and particularly Killybegs, of which I have more knowledge, have the highest reputation in the seas around Ireland?
If they are so incompetent, as would now appear to be the case, and cannot provide the necessary skills to produce at a reasonable cost a good finished article to the point that they are going to be put out of existence how, in the short few years we are talking about, were they making the best craft that sailed the seas in this part of the world? I want the Minister to answer that and I want a sworn inquiry into this question of Bord Iascaigh Mhara running a boatyard as a sideshow to their main operation. Take it apart, set up another company, bring in private people if necessary but keep it separate. There is no doubt that the skill and the necessary workers, the tradition and the demand are there. The demand is not yet being met or capable of being met here and we are sending our money abroad to buy craft built in other countries while our own people are joining the dole queues in Donegal, Kerry, Cork and all around the country.
Is this the present Government's answer to increasing employment? They are wiping out employment. Are they going mad in the head or have they heads on them at all at the moment? This is a question that surely the Minister must address himself to. Knowing the Minister, he is very well up with the pack; he is full of cop on when he wants to be and he must know what I am saying is true. With his greater knowledge of what is going on inside he must know that there is something rotten in this whole set up and this has been so for a long time. He as Minister for Fisheries and Forestry is directly responsible for that rot regardless of who is responsible from day to day; he carries the responsibility and it is to that Minister sitting here tonight that I appeal on behalf of the workforce, not only in Killybegs but in the other yards as well, to clean this mess up. Stop the redundancy notices that are now going out and call up a new deal.
Let us build our own craft here at home with our own skill and with our own men giving the employment needed, giving the men who are buying the boats good value. Let us get away from this idea of the banker being BIM and the boat builder being BIM. Business could not be done on this basis; there has not been business and the fishermen who have had to pay for the boats have been paying more than they should have been paying through no fault of the workers. It is the fault of the administration and the management, not the management on the ground at Killybegs, Baltimore or Dingle but the management at the top level who would see BIM denuded of all its technical know-how, skill and knowledge and make no effort to replace it. In fact, designedly, over the last two or three years this whole outfit has been in the process of being written off. That is as clear as day and the Minister owes it to the people of the country, to the workers, to the fisher folk the obligation to have a public sworn inquiry, to stop the redundancy notices going out and to renew his promise of starting steel hull production here side by side with the timber craft building that our men do so well.
