HC Deb 08 December 1908 vol 198 cc247-8
MR. O'MALLEY (Galway, Connemara)

I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland whether he is aware that a Norwegian company, driven from the Donegal coast by the action of the fishermen of Donegal, has established a whaling station on the Island of Inishkea, on the Mayo coast; whether the Congested Districts Board lent their steamer, the "Granuaile," to carry this company's plant from Donegal to Inishkea, and helped to obtain for it a site for its station; whether he is aware that another Norwegian company is now seeking to establish another whaling station within a few miles of the Cleggan fishery in Connemara: whether, in view of the fact that these Norwegian whalers have been excluded from establishing whaling stations in their own country because of the injury done to their fishing industries by whaling stations on their coast, he will take steps to suppress the Inishkea whaling station and prevent similar stations along the West Coast of Ireland; and whether he is aware of the fact that the fishermen in Inishkea and Cleggan have protested to the Congested Districts Board against these stations in vain.

MR. T. W. RUSSELL

A Scottish (not a Norwegian) company has established a whaling station on one of the Inishkea Islands. The Congested Districts Board did not lend their steamer for the purpose indicated. The Board, as purchasers of the Inishkea Islands, consented to an arrangement under which a Scottish whaling company, after agreement with the tenants, established a whaling station on the Islet of Rusheen, which is close to the South Island of Inishkea. The Department are aware that a Norwegian company is seeking a site for a whaling station on the coast of the county of Galway. Under the Whaling (Ireland) Act, 1908, which comes into operation on 1st January next, no whaling station can be worked in Ireland without a licence from the Department. The Act provides that before such licence is issued all persons interested shall have an opportunity of making objections to the grant thereof.