Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I propose to focus in my contribution on coastal damage, in particular on piers and harbours and the inshore fishing sector to which Deputy Wallace referred. The Irish coastline has since December last been subject to a series of extreme storm events which has caused significant damage to the infrastructure of many of our harbours, piers and slips. At this point, we are aware of damage to more than 100 piers, harbours and slipways and other coastal infrastructure linked to fisheries and aquaculture. We are also acutely aware that there is a likelihood that these storms, the latest of which first hit the west coast early this morning, may continue over the next week or so causing further damage. The situation, therefore, continues to evolve. Given what happened this morning in the midlands and south east, in particular Cork and Kerry, I suspect we will be debating this issue again in the not too distant future.

While my Department has a key role to play in regard to the Government's response on damage to fishery and aquaculture-related piers, harbours and slipways around the coast, the Office of Public Works retains overall responsibility for the Government response in relation to coastal erosion, coastal defence and flood defence projects generally. As Members will be aware most of the harbours and piers around the coast that have been adversely affected by recent storms are owned by the relevant local authority and responsibility for their maintenance and repair rests with those authorities. That being said, I am acutely aware of the dependence of a large proportion of the Irish fishing fleet, in particular our 1,900 strong inshore fleet, on the network of local authority and Department owned piers and harbours around our coast.

My Department maintains the harbours in its direct ownership and has run a limited programme in recent years co-funding the repair and upgrade of local authority harbours linked to the fisheries and aquaculture sectors. I am delighted to say that as part of its overall co-ordinated response to the impact of the recent unprecedented weather conditions, the Government yesterday decided to allocate an additional €8.8 million for the repair of the publicly owned pier, harbour and slipway network linked to fisheries and aquaculture. This is a significant amount of money given current economic circumstances and is a clear indication of this Government's commitment to rural coastal communities and the wider fishing sector that are dependent on this infrastructure. While it is difficult to be definitive at this stage, as I stated, following extensive consultation with local authorities, my engineers estimate that there are more than 100 projects involving significant damage across nine counties.

In light of the additional funds now available it is my intention to broaden the remit of my Department's 2014 capital programme immediately to encompass to the greatest extent possible repair works on publically-owned, fishery and aquaculture-related piers, slipways and infrastructure in harbours damaged by the storms. With that in mind in the coming days I will be inviting local authorities to follow up on their estimates of damage by applying for funding under the programme and to indicate their prioritised list of eligible projects on a county-by-county basis for consideration for funding for repair of the damage caused by the recent storms. The funding will be focussed on infrastructural repairs to fisheries and aquaculture-related harbours, piers and slipways, with one exception to which I will refer in a moment. A number of other general criteria similar to those attached to the previous scheme will continue to apply. However, in the current circumstances I am removing the upper limit of €150,000 grant aid per project which had previously applied.

In addition to the funding to be provided to local authorities, my Department will be moving to repair storm damage to piers, harbours and coastal infrastructure in its direct ownership. This will include moving as quickly as possible to repair the significant storm damage to North Harbour in Cape Clear, west Cork; Dunmore East Fishery Harbour Centre, County Waterford; the Gun Rock beacon, Inisboffin, County Mayo; the West Cove navigational beacon, County Kerry; and Roonagh Pier, County Mayo. An evaluation committee will consider the eligibility of all applications submitted by local authorities and advise on the eligibility and priority of the projects submitted on the basis of overall priorities and the total budge available. I will then consider the overall submissions and decide which projects are approved. I assure Deputies, including Deputy 'Ming' Flanagan, in particular, that we will be insisting on value for money and will be following up on that with our engineers supervising these projects. There is a particular problem relating to a graveyard near Rossaveel, County Galway, which has been literally washed into the sea as a result of recent storms. We will instruct the county manager in Galway to immediately fix that problem and give the authority the resources to do that. I hope this quick response from Government will address the storm damage to this vital public infrastructure and limit the damage to the local economy.

In addition to the damage caused to piers, harbours and coastal infrastructure Bord lascaigh Mhara has advised me that there have been consistent reports from around the coast to local officers of loss or destruction of lobster and shrimp pots during the extreme weather storm damage. While I am aware that some loss of pots is normal at this time of year, the scale of losses this year is exceptional. I understand that pots deployed in shallower waters have been most affected. Anyway, what makes this year exceptional is the loss of pots stored on quay sides which would normally be considered secure from winter storm damage. Reports indicate that many pots were washed off piers by the ferocity of waves and the high tides we have seen.

The pot fishermen affected by these losses are small-scale coastal fishermen but there are many of them. The vast majority of vessels are under 10 m in length and many are open or half-deck vessels. In many cases they are crewed by one owner, perhaps with one other crew member. Primarily, these fishermen fish lobster, crab and other shellfish. With the loss of pots, their means of making a living is severely threatened and we are keen to respond to protect their living within reason.

In considering assistance to these pot fishermen for their losses I am mindful that it is not possible to obtain insurance to cover the loss of pots. Therefore, I am pleased to announce today a temporary one-off scheme of assistance to these pot fishermen for the replacement of lobster and shrimp pots lost or destroyed in the recent extreme storms. The scheme is focused on smaller inshore fishermen, it will be limited to vessels under 15 m and it will be administered by BIM, ensuring value for money. It will provide a set amount of €24 per lobster pot lost or €12 per shrimp pot lost. These amounts represent approximately 40% of the cost of replacing such gear. While I am conscious that some pot fishermen have reported losses of several hundred pots I believe these are exceptional cases and therefore I am capping the number of replacement pots at 50 for under 12 m vessels and 100 for under 15 m vessels. A fisherman who has lost 100 pots at the replacement cost of approximately €6,000 will receive assistance of a little under €2,500. A fisherman availing of these schemes will be required to provide certain evidence to BIM to show that he was actively pot fishing in the months before the storms and evidence of purchase of pots that were lost. In addition, he will be required to make a sworn declaration concerning his losses. I am setting aside a maximum budget within my Department of €1.5 million for this scheme to be borne by the existing Vote within my Department. No additional funding will be made available. Therefore, I emphasise that should applications exceed this budget the rate of assistance will be reduced, either in terms of the amount of payment per pot or the maximum number of pots, in order to remain within a managed budget.

Again today, coastal communities are getting hammered by an extraordinary weather pattern. It is as if there is a storm factory in the middle of the Atlantic sending in one storm after another. We have had eight storms at this stage. It is an extraordinary weather pattern and it looks as if it will continue for a further ten days or so. This is a movable feast but the Government is responding today, as it did last week from a humanitarian point of view when €25 million was announced. Today, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Hogan, is announcing a further €70 million for structural damage in need of repair. This amounts to a combined commitment of almost €100 million from Government. The problem is still being assessed given the storm that is raging as we speak. We are doing all that is reasonably possible to respond to extraordinary weather conditions prevailing over a prolonged period. Given my responsibility as the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, my focus is on agriculture and we are focused on that sector, but today I wish to focus specifically on fisheries, harbours, piers, slipways and so on because of the two specific schemes being launched today in this area.

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