Mr. Michael Keatinge:

I should be careful. There are certain projects which we can fund 100%. They would be fully public. For example, this would apply to something like a festival or a public good project. The rule is that if the project is private, according to Community legislation, the grant rate goes down to 40%. There is a figure of 60% for a semi-private project and 100% for a public project. I have included the brochure that explains all of this in the package I gave to the committee. The details are included in it. To be clear, we allow for 100% funding, but that applies to public projects only. The trouble is if a co-op wanted to build a lobster holding unit, as Deputy Martin Ferris suggested, it would be a semi-public project; in other words, it would be open to the members of the co-op and it might receive 60% funding. If a private citizen wanted to do the same, it would not be made available to others and a grant rate of 40% would be applicable. Somebody might want to conduct a survey of marine tourism and could receive 100% funding because it was a community project.

I have addressed the following point to Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív. We must not forget that Axes 1, 2 and 3 remain, as well as Enterprise Ireland and Fáilte Ireland funds. The FLAG initiative is about micro-funding and projects in receipt of grant aid of probably less than €20,000. If people wish to access more, they should come to Bord Iascaigh Mhara, as we have Axis 1 for the fleet, Axis 2 for processing and aquaculture projects and Axis 3 for wider fisheries projects for amounts up to €100,000 or €200,000. These projects are not underaken through Axis 4 which relates to smaller scale local projects. We must not forget that bigger projects can also be undertaken, but they are undertaken through Axis 1 to Axis 3. At times we must remind ourselves that these big projects can be undertaken.