Dáil debates
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Topical Issue Debate
Inshore Fisheries
12:40 pm
Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Kathleen Lynch, for attending this afternoon to address this topical issue. I also thank the Ceann Comhairle's office for selecting this matter. It is topical and is causing some distress for the inshore fishing fleet throughout the country, in particular those along the south-west coast who have been hit extremely hard.
The Minister of State will be aware of the extreme weather events we have had since November 2015, including storms Clodagh, Desmond and Frank. It has been an unprecedented time of adverse weather events. Will the Minister of State pass on my gratitude to the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine for his Department's response to those who were affected by the floods and for the response of the Defence Forces in particular for its help to many households, businesses, towns and communities right around the country? I acknowledge the scheme that has been put in place for the first time to compensate business owners and ratepayers who have been adversely affected by the recent bad weather. One sector that has been particularly hardest hit is our inshore fisheries fleet. They have simply not been able to put to sea since November. Under normal circumstances they expect bad weather at this time of year and they try to deal with it as best they can. They have been now tied up at the quays for almost seven to eight weeks without an income. As the Minister of State is aware, there is no social protection for these fishermen. The owners are self-employed and those who work on deck are self-employed share fishermen. There is no fishing or catching and, more specifically, there is no income. Many are now facing very serious financial consequences because of the weather events.
One of the issues, which the Minister of State may be aware of, is that the quota system, which allows the inshore fishing fleet to work, is operated on a monthly basis. It puts extreme pressure on fishermen to catch the quota of fish within a calendar month. It sounds a bit archaic and somewhat anomalous that one has to catch the fish within a calendar month. If the weather does not allow this, in many cases the quota cannot be rolled over to the following month. The knock-on effect on fishermen is that they put to sea when they would be advised not to and so take risks. It is a dangerous occupation at the best of times but if they are under financial pressure as a result of adverse weather and if there is fish to be caught and rather robust prices as relatively little fish is being landed, the temptation is real and leads to extreme danger.
I call on the Minister of State and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to give serious consideration to the administration of a compensation scheme through BIM for fishermen who can prove they have really suffered financially because of the adverse weather. A precedence has been set by the flood victims, particularly by the introduction of a grant scheme for ratepayers. I look forward to the Minister of State's response.
Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine is unable to attend today and has asked me to reply to the Deputy.
It is important that the fishing industry takes every precaution to avoid risk of injury or worse during storms and has full regard to local weather warnings before venturing to sea. I think we are all agreed on that. Inshore fishermen who may be experiencing financial difficulties while ashore due to the adverse weather should contact the Department of Social Protection which offers income support payments, subject to certain eligibility criteria.
In May 2014, the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, announced the establishment of the National Inshore Fisheries Forum based on a structure of regional inshore fisheries forums to give inshore fishing communities a platform to become involved in policy formulation and decision making. The NIFF will be meeting for the sixth time on Thursday, 21 January 2016, and has invited the Department of Social Protection to discuss social protection policies relevant to the inshore fishing sector. The new seafood development operational programme under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund was adopted by the European Commission in December 2015. That programme provides a comprehensive range of supports for the seafood sector, including a dedicated scheme of supports for the inshore sector to address the various economic and sustainability challenges facing the sector.
Last Thursday, the Minister, Deputy Coveney, was pleased to have the support of the European Commission to launch the initial tranche of eight schemes at the Government press centre. These eight schemes include the sustainable fisheries scheme, which makes available up to €16 million to encourage practices that lead to reduced catches of juvenile or over-quota species with the ultimate aim of improving fisheries sustainability. The inshore fisheries conservation scheme will make €6 million available overall. The initial phase of this scheme is a specific initiative providing up to 75% of market price for lobsters which are v-notched and returned alive to the sea to contribute to maintaining the lobster stock. The fisheries local development scheme will provide up to €12 million to local groups who establish fisheries local action groups and prepare local development strategies to identify economic development needs and opportunities in their fishing communities and in turn provide financial supports to local sectors to develop business opportunities and infrastructure to deliver on that potential. The sustainable aquaculture scheme will provide up to €20.6 million to support investment to promote the sustainable growth of output, value and employment in the aquaculture sector. The knowledge gateway scheme will provide up to €8.2 million to support applied research, training and the provision of environmental and business planning advice to the aquaculture sector. The seafood capital investment scheme makes up to €13 million available for capital investment by seafood processing enterprises to focus on reducing energy costs, improving safety, health, hygiene and traceability and also adding value through processing, presentation and packaging.
The seafood innovation and business planning scheme makes available €7 million to support investment to enable entrepreneurs and seafood companies to innovate and grow business and to build capability in the sector through improved leadership, as well as management and business planning practices. Supports will be focused on new product and technology development, research and development and business planning. Finally, the seafood scaling and new market development scheme makes available €4 million to support investment to promote scale and collaboration in the sector and to fund projects that address key sector issues such as industry collaboration forums, joint ventures between companies, producers and processors and projects that address common sector issues. The inshore fishing sector is eligible for and will benefit from the implementation of many of these schemes.
The Government is fully committed to the seafood sector and the coastal communities that are dependent on fisheries and aquaculture. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has provided almost €36 million in 2016 to his Department and a range of implementing agencies to begin implementing the new seafood development programme. The Minister, Deputy Coveney, has also provided Bord Iascaigh Mhara, BIM, with €22 million in 2016 to implement these eight schemes, as well as other new schemes that will be announced over the coming weeks and months.
12:50 pm
Robert Dowds (Dublin Mid West, Labour)
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If it is all right, can Members take the rest as read?
Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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I thank the Acting Chairman.
Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for her response. I note that what was not read into the record from the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine's report to the Dáil was the establishment in the near future of a mutual fund based on funding from the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, EMFF. I congratulate the Minister on achieving a €240 million fund for the fishing sector over the next five years and I understand this is twice the size of the fund that was available over the course of the last Common Fisheries Policy period. In the aforementioned report, the Minister mentions this fund will be established to assist inshore fishermen who will be adversely affected through climatic or weather events in the future. In light of that part of the Minister's response, I ask the Minister of State to make a case to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine regarding fishermen who already have been affected. I ask that the Department should consider in good faith how this fund should be established and how contributions will be made to it. However, in effect, I seek some compensation to be made in advance of that to support fishermen who were hit really hard in 2015 and the early part of 2016.
In addition, I ask the Minister of State to ask the Minister and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine to allow for administrative roll-over of quota from those months that were affected, that is, November and December 2015 and parts of January 2016, for those fishermen who were unable to catch the quota allocated to them. I ask that the quota be rolled over into the early months of 2016, perhaps up to March or April, to facilitate those fishermen who could not catch the fish they were allocated and to give them a chance to at least claw back some of the income lost during the storm events. A further small measure the Department could take, albeit one that would show good faith, would be a deferral of harbour charges for fishermen who were tied up at the quays for such a long time. While it would not make much monetary difference, it would show good faith and acknowledgement towards the inshore fishing fleet, which has been badly affected. The Minister is even more aware of this point but it is no coincidence that this sector has been particularly hard hit and those in the fleet are practically on subsistence. For example, in respect of the recent controversy on the migrant non-national fishermen in the fleet, it is no coincidence that the vast majority of them are working in this sector or that such conditions are being experienced in this sector.
Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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To be brief, although I will relay the Deputy's concerns, I am not certain the Minister or any Minister in the Government can ask that. Most harbours now are controlled and governed by private companies or semi-State companies.
Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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I was referring to the Department's own harbours.
Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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They are few enough in number. In respect of the fund and the specific measures to support inshore fishermen affected by significant losses arising from adverse weather events, the EMFF and the operational programme provide for the establishment by fishermen of a mutual fund for adverse climatic events and environmental incidents, which when established, can provide aid to fishermen affiliated to the fund in line with predefined rules. The operational programme will co-fund the mutual fund, together with subscriptions from member fishermen. In that case, the viability of such a mutual fund is dependent on the extent to which fishermen commit to membership of that fund. Incidentally, the Minister will discuss with fishing representatives how they may establish this mutual fund over the coming year. As the Deputy rightly points out, it is important that people in this industry are not simply regulated, as they are but that also, in times of adverse weather conditions when they simply cannot work, they should be treated as would be all other industries, that is, when they cannot work there must be some safety net or fallback position for them. This is one step and there may be others because the Department of Social Protection has been invited to a meeting in the near future at which all these matters will be discussed.