Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)
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147. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on correspondence (details supplied) regarding fishing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3530/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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My Department’s Operational Programme under the European Fisheries Fund provided funding for the development of the seafood sector over the period 2008 to 2015. The Programme was funded through an EU allocation of approximately €42 million and €24 million in Exchequer funding, bringing total funds to approximately €66 million. The Programme ended in December 2015 and funding for the seafood sector is now provided through my Department’s new €240 million EMFF Seafood Development Operational Programme, which I formally launched on 14 January 2016.

The accounts for the EFF Programme are not yet finalised, so I cannot provide the Deputy with a final figure on how much in EU or Exchequer funds were invested and how much was unused at the end of the Programme. Present estimates from my Department suggest that in the region of €2 million in EU funds were unused, giving a drawdown rate of 95%. This would be a very successful outcome for any EU funding programme and will compare very favourably with other Member States. It is worth noting that all of the funds available were awarded to investment projects, but inevitably some do not proceed, while others do not avail of the full amount of funds offered to them. When this happens in the final year of the Programme there is no scope to re-allocate funds to other projects.

In July 2015, the Irish Salmon Growers Association published its report ‘Potential for Land Based Salmon Growout in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) in Ireland). The report describes in detail all technical aspects of RAS production and system design and operations. It also covers important biological aspects of land based salmon production. The Report states that its main aim is to assess the viability of land based salmon production in RAS under Irish conditions. This includes detailed information of capital expenditure and operational costs as well as the market situation for salmon. The core conclusions of the report are that RAS is a proven technology and has a role to play in the freshwater part of the life cycle of salmon; It is technically possible to produce market size salmon in an RAS system but based on the assumptions in the report, in Ireland, the capital cost of setting up a large scale commercial unit is very high; There are also still technical difficulties to be overcome to achieve reliability in the production of saltwater salmon in land based facilities.

I understand that the production of this Report cost €8,600 and that this was 100% funded by Bord Iascaigh Mhara through a 2014 call for projects under the Aquaculture Knowledge, Innovation and Technology Scheme.

I am advised by BIM that it has carefully considered the Report and is not aware of any inaccuracies in the report. Based on BIM’s own knowledge of the topic and informed from a number of sources, BIM considers the report to be thorough and that its findings are reasonable.

I was delighted to publish in December 2015 Ireland’s National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development. That Plan proposes 24 actions to drive the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector and grow production in the sector by 45,000 tonnes by 2023. The Plan targets a 30% increase in production derived from recirculating aquaculture systems. Considerable international developmental effort is being put into determining the commercial viability of land based RAS systems for the large scale production of salmon. There appears to be a market niche for such a product if the current technological challenges associated with an economically viable production system can be overcome. On 14 January 2016, I launched a new Aquaculture 'Knowledge Gateway Scheme'as part of my Department's 'EMFF Seafood Development Operational Programme'. I have provided BIM with a budget of €8.2 million for that Scheme. In close collaboration with aquaculture enterprises and researchers, the Scheme aims to develop knowledge, innovation and technology in the aquaculture sector to ensure its sustainable development. An important part of the focus of the Scheme will be the applied research and development required into RAS, identified on page 66 of the National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development.