The House will now hear two minute statements appropriate to the Minister for the Marine. I am calling the Deputies I have selected in the following order: Deputy Ted Nealon and Deputy Austin Deasy. Each Deputy is entitled to two minutes in respect of each matter and each of the statements will be followed immediately by a two minute reply by the appropriate Minister or Minister of State.
Adjournment Debate. - Marine Matters.
I have the greatest admiration for the fishermen of Killybegs. I met them many times and I filmed with them when I was in television. They are hardworking and enterprising, they are the industry leaders in seeking new fishing grounds, in introducing new equipment and in pursuing new ideas.
However, there are exceptions. It is very hard for anyone to admire the activities of the Killybegs based tank boats that fish illegally within the limits of Killala Bay and Sligo Bay at great cost to the livelihoods of the local lobster and crab fishermen. These Killybegs based fishermen are the Long John Silvers of the lobster pots. They come inside the legal limits allowed them in search of mackerel and herring, they even come inside the base lines of the bays. Not only are these encroachments illegal, they are contrary to the specified conditions in their licences. They operate with two boats towing very heavily weighted nets and they simply take up all the lobster and crab pots of the local fishermen that come in their trawl, leaving behind them wakes of destruction.
Our local fisherman lost 29 lobster and crab pots on one day recently and on one day last year the same fisherman lost 100 lobster and crab pots — each pot costs between £40 and £45.
The result is that the fishermen of Killala and Sligo Bays have not only to watch the weather, the tides and the times, they now have to try to calculate when the greatest hazard of all, the Killybegs based tank boats, will make their forays into their theoretically reserved territory.
The overall result is that most of the Killala and Sligo fishermen now stop fishing in early September to avoid the new man generated hazard. When a few years ago there would have been about 100 fishermen out at their lobster and crab pots, there are only five or six out there now.
The Killybegs based boats come so close to the shore that they have been photographed, names and all. Videos have been made of them. The local fishermen have been promised that the Naval Service would patrol the area. However, as far as I know, no action has been taken against the tank boats.
I know the Department of the Marine have met with both sides in this dispute but I have to report that the Sligo and Killala fishermen have lost patience and, I am afraid, confidence in the Department. The law is clear. There are clearly defined limits of operations. There are specified conditions in the licences of the tank boats.
No one wants to curtail the Killybegs fishermen in their legitimate pursuit of what they can catch; but, obviously, they cannot continue while fishing illegally to do wanton damage to the lobster and crab pots in Killala and Sligo Bays and to the livelihoods of those men who fish them.
The Minister for the Marine is fully aware of the problems which have arisen in the areas mentioned by the Deputy and emphatically rejects the suggestion by the Deputy that there has been a failure by his Department to deal with these problems. On the contrary the Department of the Marine, on his personal instructions have devoted considerable time and effort in trying to resolve what is a very difficult issue which is essentially a conflict between different uses and users of the marine areas concerned. In this regard I should mention that a significant proportion of the tank boats in question have legal rights to be within the limits referred to.
I am glad to say, however, that, due to the initiative taken by the Department of the Marine progress is being made. In particular, at a meeting on 20 September last, attended by representatives of the Killala and Killybegs fishermen and chaired by the Department of the Marine a code of practice designed to address the problems associated with this matter was agreed by both groups.
Agreement was reached on the placing and marking of static gear at sea and on the procedures to be followed to minimise the possibility of such gear being damaged by trawlers. In addition, the code of practice provides for a mechanism through which claims for gear lost can be processed. Within this mechanism a local committee was to be established in Killala to vet claims on behalf of Killala Co-op members who had lost gear. I understand that a meeting of the committee is planned for Monday next, 9 December, to consider a recent claim in respect of lost gear.
Finally, I would like to stress that the Minister for the Marine intends to monitor developments in this matter very closely in the coming months and is prepared to take whatever action is necessary to ensure that both trawlermen and static gear fishermen work together to resolve any further problems that may arise.
I must protest that neither the Minister for the Marine nor his Minister of State is present to hear my grievance.
I will give the Deputy a very comprehensive reply.
I hope it will be to the point and reasonable. I wish to protest at the refusal of the Department of the Marine to grant a licence to fish for herring and mackerel to Mr. Richard Power of Dunmore East, County Waterford in respect of his 66 foot boat, the Star of Nazareth. I should point out that up to last year Mr. Power owned three fishing boats, the Stelimar, the Exodus and the Jonara. He has sold the Exodus and the Jonara, both of which were 53 feet long. The Stelimar was badly damaged by fire off Dún Laoghaire on 13 August. One of the crewmen died as a result of the fire.
Those three boats belonging to Mr. Power had a licence to fish for herring and mackerel in the Celtic Sea. Mr. Power sold the two smaller boats and purchased the Star of Nazareth, which is 66 feet long, but he cannot now get a licence to fish for herring and mackerel for that boat although he surrendered the licences for the two other boats on the assumption that he would get a licence for the boat he purchased from Bord Iascaigh Mhara at a cost of £200,000, plus a grant of £153,000 from FEOGA.
This man has to use two boats in fishing for herring, a process which is known as pair fishing. When the Stelimar for which he has a licence is back at sea he will need a licence for the Star of Nazareth to help him earn a living from herring fishing. It seems incomprehensible that a man who surrendered two licences cannot get one in return. I ask the Minister of State to see to it that an Irish fisherman using a Irish built boat, which has been grant-aided by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, is given an entitlement to fish with the Star of Nazareth given that previously he had permission to fish with two boats.
On behalf of the Minister for the Marine, I should explain that this case involved the sale of an existing boat within the fleet and, as the boat is over 65 feet in length, the issue of a new fishing boat licence was necessary. In such cases, under current licensing policy, new licences to fish for herring and mackerel are only granted where the vessel in question had an entitlement to fish and an active history of fishing for these species. The purpose of this policy is to restrict growth in the catching capacity of the pelagic sector of the fleet where there is already over capacity.
The facts of this case are that the mv Star of Nazareth was purchased by Mr. Richard Power in November 1990. In early December 1990, he applied for a sea fishing boat licence in respect of the boat. In his application he included herring and mackerel as species which he proposed to fish. At no stage prior to making this application or purchasing the boat did Mr. Power raise with the Department of the Marine the question of whether the boat should be licensed to fish for herring and mackerel. While the boat had an entitlement to fish for herring and mackerel it had no history of fishing for either of these species. Accordingly, when a sea fishing boat licence was issued to Mr. Power it included a condition precluding fishing for herring and mackerel. Subsequently, Mr. Power appealed the decision. The original decision was confirmed in a letter to Mr. Power. Current policy in the matter was explained also.
In response to a proposal from Mr. Power, however, it was agreed as an interim measure that the entitlement to fish for herring contained in the licence of a second boat owned by him, the mv Stelimar should be transferred to the Star of Nazareth. The Stelimar had recently been damaged and was expected to be out of service for about eight months. This arrangement which is regarded as a temporary measure is due to expire on 31 December 1991. As a result of this measure, Mr. Power has been able to take part in the autumn herring fishing season in the Celtic Sea. If, on the expiry of this arrangement, the Stelimar is still out of commission the Minister for the Marine will be prepared to consider an extension of this temporary measure for a further limited period.
This is a case of bureaucracy going mad. This man got rid of two boats and purchased one boat but he cannot get a licence to operate it.
The Minister's reply concluded the debate.
The Dáil adjourned at 9.10 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Wednesday, 4 December 1991.