Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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5. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will seek compensation under the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to help alleviate the loss of earnings for fishermen from mid-January until April as a consequence of last winter’s storms. [20376/14]

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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All of us in this House and further afield were very conscious of the weather at the start of this year. Many fishermen, particularly inshore fishermen - the more dependent fishermen - had no income from the middle of December until probably the beginning of April. Will the Minister seek compensation under the new European Maritime and Fisheries Fund to try to compensate for the loss of earnings for fishermen from mid-January to April as a consequence of the terrible weather during that period?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for this question. I think he knows we have already put quite a considerable budget in place in response to that storm damage, particularly from a construction point of view, within 115 harbours controlled and managed by local authorities. That was a total of approximately €9 million. We are putting a further €14.6 million in place for our own harbours this year. We have also put a pot compensation scheme in place for fishermen who have lost lobster and shrimp pots. To be honest, the response to that scheme, clearly because of some of the restrictions associated with it, is that there have been only 151 applicants, so we are reviewing whether we need to do something further, as I have said previously in the House.

I am anxious to do something more than we have done for this sector. Next week I will outline a new policy framework for the inshore fishing sector, which should have been done in the past but was not done, and which will for the first time put structures in place to give inshore fishermen a voice in contributing to policy decisions.

The reason it is hard for me to give the Deputy an exact answer to his question is that we do not have a clear picture as to what the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund will be for Ireland, so it is very hard for me to make commitments on the back of not knowing what the budget will be. Hopefully, we will know that figure by the end of this month, or certainly by the end of June. The European Commission is finalising that.

We have options to do all sorts of things with that new fisheries fund, but we need to know how much money we have and then we need to work out with the industry how we can best spend it in terms of implementation of the new Common Fisheries Policy and potentially putting a fund together which can support fishermen through difficult periods such as the one we had this winter. I have an open mind on all of that, but until I have a pool of money that I know I can spend, it would be irresponsible of me to commit to spending money I do not have.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his reply. In regard to the pot compensation scheme and the very low take-up, with 151 applying for it, much of that is down to the restrictions the Minister mentioned and the fact that people had to produce receipts for pots bought in the past. Many people do not have those receipts and that prevented people from trying to avail of the fund.

I refer to the fisheries fund and the loss of earnings, particularly for share fishermen, who, partially through their own fault, do not have access to any type of social welfare payment, although they can go to the community welfare officer to try to beg for money. However, that is not working out. We need some type of fund.

Can the Minister confirm that funding can be applied for retrospectively in order to help fishermen who face awful losses? If they do not get some help, many of them will be out of business as a consequence.

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My understanding is that it is possible to apply retrospectively or to apply for hardship supports retrospectively.

We need to do that in the context of a discussion with people in the industry about how best to spend a limited amount of money under a fisheries fund, as it will be called. When I know the budget we have - we are trying hard to increase the fisheries fund for Ireland despite the fact that the overall fisheries fund available to the Commission has reduced - I am hopeful we will see an increase in the amount of money we have to spend. We got a particularly poor deal the last time, giving us approximately €10 million per year to spend on the EU fisheries fund. I am hopeful we could get more than that this time. It would be justifiable. Although it is my understanding that this may be possible, we will have to decide the issue in consultation with stakeholders in the industry once we know how much money we have to spend.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Is there any consultation with the industry about that? The Minister has indicated that he will try to see if it can be applied retrospectively. From speaking to people in the industry, my understanding is it can be done. Will the Minister give a commitment that if it is possible to do it, it will be done?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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No, as we must first know how much money we have and then we must prioritise how to spend it. The industry and stakeholders will be part of the discussion. We should know how much money we have to spend by the middle of the year and we will then put in train a process to decide how we spend it by the end of the year. It would be irresponsible of me to start making commitments before I even know the pool of money. I will certainly give a commitment that we will have serious stakeholder discussions of how the fisheries fund will be spent. That is not unusual, and we have ongoing consultations with the industry every week on how to manage quotas and the fisheries sector generally. This will be an extension of that process. It is difficult to decide a set of priorities unless one knows how much money is there to spend. That is the first decision to be made.

Martin Ferris (Kerry North-West Limerick, Sinn Fein)
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Is it possible that there could be retrospective payments?

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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I am not ruling that out.