§ SIR THOMAS ESMONDETo ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland if he will permit some portion of the money now utilised and lying to the credit of the Department of Agriculture, to be devoted to the assistance of the fishermen on the South-East Coast of Ireland.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) I am informed that the purposes to which the unallocated balance of the endowment fund of the Department of Agriculture may be applied have received the consideration of the Agricultural Board, and it has been decided that this balance, amounting to about £130,000. is required to meet the present excess of annual expenditure over normal income for the purposes of agriculture and other rural industries, and sea fisheries, as defined in Section 30 of the Agriculture and Technical Instruction Act of 1899. The Department point out that they have expended and are expending considerable sums of money on the improvement of fishery piers and harbours in connection with the South-East Coast fisheries, namely, at Arklow, in County Wicklow, at Courtown, Poulduff, and Slade, in County Wexford, and at Passage East, Dromore, Ballinagoul, and Ardmore, in County Waterford. The Department are not prepared, in the present state of their funds, to undertake further expenditure of this nature.