Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I recognise that. When I was before the committee chaired by Deputy McGuinness recently, I informed it that I have asked an outside interlocutor to work with the sector generally. Mr. Kieran Mulvey has accepted the role of working with all stakeholders in the sector to identify areas where we can assist and develop a way forward or pathway as part of a strategy that the Department will develop under the programme for Government.

The Department has significantly improved the financial supports available to the inshore fleet in the past year, having implemented a number of schemes to specifically support inshore fishers and improved the aid rates available. These schemes include the small-scale coastal fisheries schemes, which provide unprecedented enhanced grants of up to 80% to inshore fishers for both onboard and onshore investment. Grants of 100% are now in place for inshore fishermen and women participating in the lobster V-notching scheme. An innovative scheme to support the economic development of the inshore fishing fleet, the inshore fleet economic assessment scheme, was put in place in 2024.

Inshore fishers can also access supports under other schemes, such as the fleet safety scheme and the seafood training scheme. All these schemes are administered on behalf of my Department through BIM, as the Deputy knows. Further details on them are available from me. I am happy to continue to work with the sector to try to provide the most support possible, recognising that there are constraints set out in both domestic and European law.

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