§ MR. M. BROOKS (for Captain NOLAN)asked the Chief Secretary for Ireland, If his attention has been called to the following statement contained in the lately presented Report of the Inspector of Irish Fisheries, page 6:—
Having frequently urged the great necessity of having attached to this department a suitable cutter or steamboat under our control, and stated at length the reasons why such would be most desirable, we consider it unnecessary to repeat the same arguments over again;We therefore confine ourselves to saying that our usefulness would be much increased if we were provided with the means we have so often sought for to enable us to carry on the duties as efficiently as we would wish;and, if it is the intention of the Government to provide the Inspectors of Fisheries with the vessel which they have so often represented they stood so much in need of?
§ SIR MICHAEL HICKS-BEACHSir, my attention has been called to the statement quoted by the hon. Member from the Report of the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries, and to similar recommendations in previous Reports. I was not at first satisfied that sufficient necessity existed for devoting a vessel solely to this special service to warrant the expenditure that would be required. But the duties of the Inspectors have somewhat increased, owing to the work imposed on them by the Irish Reproductive Loan Fund Act, and in consequence I made inquiry whether the Admiralty could place a gunboat always at the disposal of the Inspectors. The Admiralty felt unable to comply with the suggestion, and I am now in communication with the Treasury on the subject, with the view of ascertain- 1074 ing whether, and to what extent, the Irish Fishery Inspectors could be placed in this matter in the same position as the Scotch Fishery Commissioners.