§ MR. SLOAN (Belfast, S.)To ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that on the 28th ultimo four fishermen when entering the boat harbour at Ballycastle had a narrow escape from drowning, due to a wall having been built there by a Mr. M'lldowney between high and low water mark; if he can state on whose authority this wall was built; and whether, seeing that it imperils the lives of fishermen using the harbour, he can say what steps, if any, it is proposed to take to have it removed.
(Answered by Mr. Bryce.) It is, I am informed, the fact that a boat containing four fishermen recently had a narrow escape from being swamped when entering the boat harbour at Ballycastle. The fishermen hold that the building of a wall by Mr. M'Ildowney has increased the danger of entering the harbour in rough weather, and some of them told me when I was at Ballycastle on 31st August that the wall prevented the Rathlin men who came into the little harbour from seeing when a heavy swell was coming. I understand that Mr. M'Ildowney, who is the owner of a private jetty near the harbour, has built the wall on ground of which he claims to be the lessee. He 105 does not admit that the wall has injured the harbour, but says it has rather tended to make it safer. The Department of Agriculture is at present negotiating with the county council with the view of seeing whether anything can be done to improve the harbour, and in that connection the subject of the wall referred to will doubtless receive consideration.