The House will now hear two-minute statements on matters appropriate to the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications and the Minister for the Marine. I propose to call the Deputies who have been selected in the following order. First Deputy Ted Nealon in respect of a matter to the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications.
Adjournment Debate. - Tourism, Transport and Communications and Marine Matters.
I should like to give some of my time to my colleague, Deputy Brennan.
There is a growing fear about the future of the Sligo-Mullingar railway line. No one is going to come out and say it is for the chop. That is not the way it will happen; it will be killed off by slow strangulation. Already this year the maximum speed limits of the trains on this line have been curtailed to 50 mph, next year it will be 40 mph and the following year it will be 30 mph, thus bringing the service to an end. I understand that the line from Sligo to Mullingar is the first designated for closure unless the Government provide the necessary money for essential track renewal and signalling work. I am fully aware that the spending of this money is officially a matter for the board of CIE and Irish Rail. The problem is that the Government subvention is not adequate to meet all the urgent needs of track renewal, so some part of the network has to be sacrificed. A major track renewal programme between Sligo and Carrick-onShannon was started about a year ago and a special squad of workers recruited. However, this work was suddenly abandoned, presumably because of lack of funds.
In view of the vital importance of the railway link to Sligo and the entire northwest, any threat to the line is not acceptable. Closure should not be contemplated. A major upgrading of the track, signalling systems and rolling stock is needed immediately. When the Minister met the Sligo Chamber of Commerce last June he promised that priority funding for this essential work would be made available from the 1992 budget. I am asking him to honour that promise now that the Estimates are being formulated.
I am fully aware that the Government have to deal with exceptionally difficult budgetary constraints and that demands will be made on all Departments, including the Minister's, to prune their expenditure. The trouble is that the Sligo-Mullingar railway line cannot wait until better times; it cannot even wait another year. I hope the Minister will be able to give us an assurance that the urgently needed funding for this railway line will be provided. I am raising this issue on a day when the morning train from Sligo was half an hour late arriving at Connolly Station.
First, I should like to thank Deputy Nealon for sharing his time with me. I agree with everything he has said here tonight. It is a shame to think that the Sligo railway line will be downgraded, particularly the segment from Mullingar to Sligo. There is an excellent train service from Dublin to Mullingar. An extra train is put on in the mornings to bring people from Mullingar to Dublin to work. As Deputy Nealon said, unfortunately the speed limit of the train from Mullingar to Sligo has been reduced to 50 mph and sometimes it is much less. The people of Sligo, Roscommon and Longford are deeply concerned about this service.
I have spoken in this House previously about the Dublin to Sligo railway line, in particular the segment from Mullingar to Sligo. As Deputy Nealon rightly said, a number of people had started work on upgrading that line and laying of new tracks. I have been reliably informed that the money for this work has been diverted to the southern line which is used by more people. If the railway line to Sligo is not upgraded fewer people will use our railways in the future.
The Deputy's car is not too dependable.
At present the policy in Europe is to upgrade railway lines in order to take more traffic off the roads. This is one of the reasons the Sligo line should be upgraded rather than downgraded. As Deputy Nealon rightly said, the train to Sligo is half an hour late most days. This is not acceptable, especially in the case of people who have hospital appointments in Dublin.
I have to start applying the brakes now.
We do not want the Deputy to miss any more votes, the Government may collapse.
It has been indicated publicly on a number of occasions recently that no proposals have been made by the board of CIE to close or downgrade the Mullingar-Sligo segment of the Dublin-Sligo rail line and this remains the position. It has also been made clear that the renewal of the track is a matter which falls entirely within the day to day administration and operations of Iarnród Éireann.
I have been advised by the chairman of CIE that, following a review of their track renewal programme, Iarnród Éireann recently deferred some elements of work on the Mullingar-Sligo segment of the Dublin-Sligo line. This has resulted in some speed restrictions being applied to some sections of the line between Mullingar and Sligo. The distances of line where these speed restrictions apply vary between 0.5 mile and one mile. While these restrictions have added ten-15 minutes to the journey time between Dublin and Sligo, the chairman of CIE has advised that maintenance work on the Mullingar-Sligo line is continuing.
More generally, I would like to emphasise that the Exchequer subvention to Coras Iompair Éireann in 1991 in respect of essential public services will amount to £108 million, which is well over £2 million per week. This represents a very substantial level of support for public transport, particularly against the background of scarce Exchequer resources. Of this, over 80 per cent will be expended on railway services. In addition, the Public Capital Programme for 1991 provides for capital expenditure by CIE of £36.2 million, of which £5.7 million has been allocated for expenditure on railway signalling and track replacement. The allocation of these resources to individual capital programmes within the CIE group is a matter entirely for the board of CIE.
As far as Sligo is concerned, I would like to point out that Sligo station has recently been upgraded as part of Iarnród Éireann's Transtrack reorganisation and will now cater for groupage and sundry traffic for the north Roscommon area and County Donegal. I also understand that Iarnród Éireann propose to replace the existing freight gantry in Sligo station. The replacement gantry will be capable of lifting larger containers. Higher operating speeds will also be possible with this new equipment.
These projects represent substantial investments in the facilities at Sligo station and are a strong indication of Iarnród Éireann's commitment to the improvement of services and facilities in this area.
I am concerned about the need to ensure that our herring fishery is properly organised this season, unlike last season when it was not properly organised. This was not the fault of the Minister or the Department of the Marine; it was the fault of the fishermen's organisations and their associated producer groups. As a result, the season last year was very lopsided and the total permissible quota was fished out in the western sector of the Celtic Sea, leaving no fish at all for the eastern sector about which I am mainly concerned, the Dunmore East fishery.
I ask the Minister to keep this matter under review in order to ensure that there is an even distribution of the catch and the season is spread out over the maximum time possible. If the fishery, which extends from Hook Head in Wexford right around to Loop Head in County Clare, is properly organised people will be able to earn a decent living up to the middle of February next year. However, if there is a repetition of what happened last year, when there was gross overfishing in the western sector of the Celtic Sea, the income possibilities for people in the Dunmore East fishery will be destroyed. This fishery is worth about £1 million to the people of Dunmore East, be they fishermen, processors, the workers on the quayside or businesses in the area. It is essential that these people have a five or six month season so that they can get their just rewards.
I also want to ask the Minister if he will encourage Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the IDA to endeavour to get new markets for roe. That is the part of the fish that was selling particularly well over the past seven or eight years to the Far East, to Japan in particular. That market seems to have collapsed to a considerable degree in the last year. It is a very important part of fishermen's income. The fish itself can be sold as fillets or as marinated herring to the Continent but the roe is an element which makes the herring fishery extremely profitable. I would like to see those markets in the Far East, particularly in Japan, resurrected and maintained. Above all, I would like the Minister to oversee the operation in the entire Celtic Sea area to ensure there is no undue exploitation by any particular sector and that everybody gets a fair crack of the whip.
Limerick West): I thank Deputy Deasy for his contribution. The 1991 herring quota for the Celtic Sea is 19,555 tonnes which includes a quota swop of 545 tonnes negotiated with France. This is the highest quota in this area for a number of years and 6,161 tonnes were taken in the spring fishing leaving 13,394 tonnes for the autumn fishing which opened on 6 October last. Initially four ports in the region were open — Fenit, Dingle, Castletownbere and Cobh. Dunmore East was opened on 20 October when it became apparent, based on scientific fishing, that the quality of the roe of the herring in that area was suitable and acceptable.
A conservation box closure is set to come into force in the western sector from 1 November to 16 November inclusive. The purpose of such closure is to conserve the stock in that area during its most vulnerable spawning period. During the period of the box closure, the ports coming within the box will remain closed, leaving Cobh and Dunmore East as the only ports open for herring landings. As Deputy Deasy has rightly said prices for herring roe have been down to date this autumn. My officials both at the ports and in the Department are monitoring the situation on a continuous basis. Indeed, I will be happy to bring to the notice of Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the IDA the points the Deputy has raised in regard to that aspect.
The Celtic Sea herring quota, as defined in the 1991 TACs and Quotas Regulation, relates to an area south of Loop Head in the west and Cahore Point, County Wexford, in the east. There is no formal division within the fishery in terms of division of the quota. However, given that this is primarily a roe fishery, the area roughly falls into two distinct areas from a spawning and management viewpoint: a western element from Dingle to Cork Harbour, which is an autumn fishery, and an eastern element from Cork Harbour to Dunmore East, which is a winter-spring fishery.
My objective in the management of the Celtic Sea herring fishing is to allocate the quotas available as evenly as possible over the main spawning season with a view to maximising income and employment both to the fishermen and the processors. I am satisfied, having made inquiries, that the present management regime in place will ensure that this is achieved to the end of 1991.
So the Minister can guarantee there will be no overfishing this year in the western sector.
(Limerick West): Yes, as I have outlined.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.25 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 31 October 1991.