Dr. Cecil Beamish:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to contribute on this. Since December, there has been series of extreme storm events around the coast which have caused significant damage to infrastructure on our coastline and to publicly owned harbours, piers, slipways and related infrastructure. As of last Friday, the Department estimated that damage had occurred in more than 100 piers, harbours and slipways and other coastal infrastructure linked to fisheries and aquaculture. The damage has been done primarily to smaller piers, harbours and slipways. The fishery harbour centres in Howth, Dunmore East, Castletownbere, Dingle, Rossaveal and Killybegs did not suffer serious damage, although there was some damage in Dunmore East.

The latest storm first hit the west coast yesterday morning. Wave height was severe but it did not initially coincide with a high tide and that made a difference around the coast. However, there is a strong likelihood that these storms may continue over the weekend and, therefore, we are not sure if we are at the end of this spate of storms. The situation continues to evolve.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine was represented on, and contributed to, the national co-ordination group on severe weather, which was convened to assess the impact of the storms on infrastructure and communities and to ensure a co-ordinated response by relevant local authorities, Departments and agencies. Most of the harbours and piers around the coast that have been adversely affected by the recent storms are owned by the relevant local authority, and responsibility for their repair and maintenance rests with them in the first instance. However, the Department accepts that it has a key role to play in the Government's response to damage to publicly owned, fishery related piers, harbours and slipways around the coast. We also acknowledge that the OPW retains overall responsibility for the Government's response in regard to coastal erosion, coastal defence and flood defence projects generally. Our focus is on the piers, harbours and slipways linked to fisheries and aquaculture around the coast, and there are many of those.

A prime consideration for the Department is the dependence of a large proportion of the Irish fishing fleet, particularly our 1,900 inshore vessels, on the network of local authority-owned piers and harbours for their operational activities. With that consideration, and as part of our annual capital fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development programme, we have run a limited scheme co-funding the repair and upgrade of local authority-owned harbours linked to fisheries and aquaculture. This has been a small scheme.

As part of its overall co-ordinated response to the impact of the recent unprecedented weather conditions, the Government has decided to allocate an additional €8.8 million for the repair of our publicly owned harbour network linked to fisheries and aquaculture. This is a significant amount, given current economic circumstances, and it is a clear indication of the Government's commitment to rural coastal communities dependent on this infrastructure and to the wider fishing sector. It is also part of the overall Government response to the storms.

While it is difficult to be definitive at this stage, the Department's engineers have engaged since the storm period began in an extensive consultation process with local authority engineers, and the estimate as of last Friday is that more than 100 piers, harbours and slipways across nine counties had experienced damage. That damage varies from relatively light to relatively severe. In the context of the additional funds now available, the Minister announced in the Dáil yesterday that it is proposed to broaden the scope of the Department's 2014 capital programme to encompass to the greatest extent possible repair works on publicly owned, fishery and aquaculture related piers, slipways and infrastructure in harbours damaged by the storms.

It is intended in the coming days to invite local authorities to apply for co-funding under this programme. Co-funding traditionally has been provided at a rate of 75% of the cost incurred in carrying out the project, but the Minister has decided in the circumstances to increase this rate to 90%. The invitation to local authorities will ask them prioritise a list of eligible projects on a county-by-county basis for consideration for funding the repair of the damage caused by the recent storms. This funding will be focused on infrastructural repairs to fisheries and aquaculture related harbours, piers and slipways. A number of normal, general criteria will apply to the scheme to ensure value for money is achieved in the design, implementation and execution of the repair works. Traditionally, the upper limit for support has been €150,000 per project because these are small projects, but that cap will be removed for this special scheme.

In addition to the funding to be provided to local authorities, the Department will be moving to repair storm damage to piers, harbours and coastal infrastructure in its direct ownership. Some coastal infrastructure in the direct ownership of the Department has also been damaged, and the Department will move through its engineering division as quickly as possible to repair the significant storm damage to the north harbour in Cape Clear that occurred in January, the breakwater in the Dunmore East fishery harbour centre in County Waterford, the Gun Rock beacon on Inishbofin, which was damaged ten days or two weeks ago, the West Cove navigational beacon in County Kerry, and Dooagh pier in County Mayo.

An evaluation committee will consider the eligibility of all local authority applications and decide on the basis of overall priorities and in the context of the total budget available the projects the Minister may consider for approval. In addition to this scheme to address the damage to the smaller piers and harbours around the coast, Bord lascaigh Mhara, working with the Department, has been producing consistent reports from around the coast of loss or destruction of lobster and shrimp pots owned by inshore fishermen during the extreme winter storm events. While some loss of pots is normal during the winter months, it is thought that the scale of losses this year is exceptional. It is understood that pots deployed in shallower waters have been most affected, but what makes this year more exceptional has been the loss of pots stored on quaysides. Reports indicate that many pots were washed off piers by the ferocity of waves and either destroyed or swept out to sea.

The pot fishermen affected by these losses are small-scale coastal fishermen. The majority of vessels are under 10 metres in length and many are open or just half decked vessels. In many cases, they are crewed by the owner or perhaps one other crew member. These fishermen primarily fish lobster, crab and other shellfish. With the loss of pots, the means of any fisherman affected to make a living is severely threatened. If they cannot replace their lost pots and return to fishing, they risk becoming unemployed.

With regard to the prioritisation of available funding, this situation has been examined closely. In considering assistance to these pot fishermen for their losses, the Minister announced yesterday he would move to address this. It is not possible for many of these fishermen to obtain insurance to cover loss of pots. Yesterday, the Minister announced in the Dáil a temporary, once-off scheme of assistance to these pot fishermen for the replacement of lobster and shrimp pots lost or destroyed in the recent extreme storm events.

The scheme will be focused on smaller inshore fishermen, limited to vessels under 15 m and will be administered by BIM, Bord Iascaigh Mhara. It will provide a set amount of €24 per lost lobster pot lost and €12 per lost shrimp pot. These amounts represent approximately 40% of the cost of replacement of such gear. The Department is conscious that some pot fishermen have reported losing several hundred pots. These are exceptional cases, however. Accordingly, the number of replacement pots for under 12 m vessels will be capped at 50 and for those vessels between 12 m and 15 m it will be capped at 100 pots. So a fisherman who has lost 100 pots at a replacement cost of approximately €6,000 will receive assistance of €2,400.

Fishermen availing of this scheme will be required to provide certain evidence to BIM to show they were actively pot fishing in the months before the storms, as well as evidence of purchase of the pots that were lost. In addition, they will be required to make a declaration concerning their losses. A maximum budget of €1.5 million has been set aside for the purposes of the scheme, to be borne by the existing Vote of the Department. No additional funding will be made available. Should applications exceed this budget, the rate of assistance will be reduced, either in terms of the amount of payment per pot or in terms of the maximum number of pots. We do not expect this to be the case, however. Further details of this scheme will be made available from BIM shortly.