Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 91 and 92 together.

In her report, the Ombudsman stated she received several complaints in respect of the lost at sea scheme. She recommended that compensation should be paid to one family. Following further correspondence between the Ombudsman and the Department, the Ombudsman laid a special report before the Dáil and Seanad on 14 December 2009 outlining her findings and invited the Houses to consider the report and take whatever action they deem appropriate in the circumstances. I understand the matter will be debated in the House next week.

The Ombudsman concluded that the particular family's application did not meet at least two of the conditions of the scheme and that the family was adversely affected by the decision to reject its application. The Department's position has been consistently that it does not support the payment of financial redress in this case and that it handled the family's application fairly and in accordance with the terms of the lost at sea scheme as published.

The lost at sea scheme was a limited scheme introduced in June 2001 with a closing date of 31 December 2001, under which replacement capacity, gross tons and kilowatts that would otherwise have had to be bought on the tonnage market was provided free of charge to qualifying applicants who had lost a fishing vessel between 1980 and the establishment of the fishing boat register in 1990, but who had been unable to replace it for verified financial reasons. The scheme was intended to assist families to introduce a replacement for the lost vessel which would be owned and skippered by the applicant or by an immediate relation of the applicant.

"Capacity" is a term used to describe the gross tons, GTs, a measure of volume, and kilowatts, kWs, of power of a fishing vessel. The total capacity of the Irish fishing fleet is limited to 88,700 GTs and 244,834 kWs under EU Regulation No. 1438/2003. Under the so-called "entry-exit regime", capacity coming on to the Irish register must be matched by the removal of the equivalent capacity from the same fleet segment.

When the new sea fishing boat register was introduced in 1990, all vessels registered at the time were awarded the tonnage of their vessels, effectively free of charge. However, any vessel that had sunk or that had otherwise been destroyed clearly could not be registered. Any such owner seeking to return to fishing would have had to buy a replacement vessel and the necessary capacity, which in time became a valuable commodity because the overall capacity of the Irish fleet was capped under EU fleet management rules. By 2001, it was argued that there were several cases where the cost of purchasing replacement capacity was a factor in preventing families from getting back into fishing after losing a vessel.

The conditions of the scheme were intended to ensure that only genuine cases were successful and that only the immediate family could benefit from any capacity awarded.

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