Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy McConalogue. The Minister is very aware of the challenges faced by inshore fishermen. He met with representatives of the inshore fleet recently to discuss them. The European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, EMFAF, is the primary source of funding for the Irish seafood sector. It provides a budget of €258 million for the programme period 2021 to 2027. The EMFAF regulation is aligned with the objectives of the Common Fisheries Policy, CFP, and makes no provision for the fund to be used to compensate fishers for reductions in quota. The EMFAF regulation allows funding to be used to compensate for losses and increased costs caused by market disturbance only where the Commission makes an implementing decision to allow member states to do so. At present, no such implementing decision is in place.

At the meetings of the AGRIFISH Council in December 2023 and March 2024, Ireland and a number of member states supported a request to the Commission to extend the previous implementing decision in relation to the conflict in the Ukraine until the end of this year. The commission has not yet indicated whether it will do so. If we wish to put supports in place outside the EMFAF programme, we are constrained by EU state aid regulations which restrict the type of aid that member states may put in place in the fisheries and aquaculture sector. Again, these do not allow for compensation to be paid in respect of reductions in quota or market failure.

The only EU state aid basis for compensation in respect of the impact of the conflict in Ukraine is the temporary crisis transition framework, TCTF. Section 2.1, which covers fishers, was extended recently until the end of December 2024. However, there are still restrictions on the type of aid that may be provided. For example, it does not allow for fleet tie-up schemes, which is one of the preferred supports requested by inshore fishers. The Minister has explained to the inshore representatives that if we pursue a scheme on the basis of the TCTF in addition to securing Exchequer funding and sanction from the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Ireland would need to have the scheme notified to the commission and the state aid process can take a number of months. It is therefore very uncertain whether we would be able to develop and implement a scheme under the TCTF before the end of December.

I can confirm that the Minister is progressing an inshore fisheries support scheme under the EMFAF. This scheme provides enhanced grant aid rates, between 80% and 100%, to small-scale coastal fishers to support onboard and onshore investments. It will also provide funding for inshore fishers to participate in inshore fisheries conservation measures.

This scheme has been circulated to the EMFAF monitoring committee for adoption, and the inshore groups such as the NIFF, NIFA and IIMRO are members of the monitoring committee. Once it has been adopted, it will be implemented by BIM without delay. Inshore fishers can also access support from the fleet safety and seafood training schemes, both of which are open for applications at the moment.

Department officials are working closely with BIM to identify what additional supports can be put in place within the constraints I have outlined, and I am confident there will be progress on this in the next couple of months. Funding supports alone are not the solution to the challenges faced by the inshore fleet. The Minister, Deputy McConalogue, is committed to ensuring the necessary scientific and technical knowledge and support services, which underpin sustainable and viable inshore fisheries, will continue to be provided by BIM and the Marine Institute.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine and BIM will engage with the inshore sector to develop a successor to the Irish Inshore Fisheries Sector Strategy 2019-2023. This will provide an opportunity to fully consider the challenges facing the inshore fleet and identify measures to mitigate these challenges.

See this speech in context