Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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15. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine regarding the research carried out by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, which found there is a need to upskill young persons to facilitate the 10,000 new jobs to be created by 2020, the supports he will put in place to facilitate new entrants in the marine economy; if he will increase supports for those on the new farmer's scheme in aquaculture, in view of the fact that according to new entrants, the €25,000 currently allocated to them is not sufficient to facilitate new farmers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18631/15]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Under the Action Plan for Jobs 2014, the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs committed to undertaking an assessment of the profile and diversity of the occupations and skills requirements of enterprises in the different sectors that make up the Marine economy. Its April 2015 report – ‘A Study of the Current and Future Skills Requirements of the Marine/Maritime Economy to 2020’,notes that in the seafood sector in particular, the workforce is ageing and this will present a skills difficulty unless measures are put in place to attract and upskill younger workers. On 27 March 2015, I announced plans for a new €241 million development programme for the seafood sector for the period up to 2020, co-funded by the EU through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. A public consultation on the draft Programme closed on 1 May 2015 and I am now working to finalise the Programme with a view to bringing the Programme to Government shortly for approval.Through Food Harvest 2020 and this new Seafood Development Programme, I am targeting growth of the seafood industry to €1 billion by 2020, with growth in employment of 3,000 to 14,000 people employed in our coastal communities.

The draft Programme recognised the ageing profile of fishermen in particular and more generally recognised the need for tailored supports for new entrants and for supports for training and advice. The draft Programme proposed a New Fishermen Scheme to provide aid to new entrants to purchase their first fishing vessel and a New Farmers Scheme for new aquaculture enterprises to provide aid for start-up capital investment. It also proposed a special scheme of training for the aquaculture sector and the final Programme will provide for similar training for fishermen. Of course BIM has been providing training to new entrants to the seafood sector for many years, including training for the fishing, aquaculture and processing sectors.

In relation to the New Farmers Scheme, this is a new initiative included in the draft Seafood Development Programme and has not previously operated. The draft Programme makes no reference to any cap of €25,000 on the level of support that will be provided through the Scheme. I have not yet made any decision on the detail of that new Scheme, which will in any event require to be approved by the Monitoring Committee of stakeholders to be established under the Programme.