§ MR. JAMES ROCHE (Kerry, E.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland whether the Inspectors of Irish Fisheries have been applied to by the Conservators of the 207 River Shannon to request Her Majesty's Government to place a gunboat on protection duty at the mouth of the River Shannon, as it has been discovered that a French fishing fleet are shooting their mackerel nets within the limit, and in such a manner as to prevent the run of salmon, to the great detriment of the national fishery; and whether he will recommend the Lord Lieutenant to favourably consider such request?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURAn application of the nature referred to in the Question was made to the Inspectors of Fisheries, who replied that in the absence of a bye-law prohibiting mackerel fishing there was no ground on which the Inspectors could support the application. It is a fact that French fishing boats annually visit the South West Coast of Ireland and fish for two or three months, but the Inspectors have no evidence before them to show that these vessels fish within territorial limits.
§ CAPTAIN DONELANasked whether it was the fact that these French fishing boats had not the right to come within a distance of three miles of the shore?
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURsaid he believed that was so; what he had stated was that the Inspector had no evidence that they did come within that distance of the shore.