Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I am assuming that the Deputy is referring to my Department's European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme 2014-20, which is the financial mechanism for supporting implementation of the CFP.  The EMFF Programme is implemented through a suite of 18 support schemes addressing various aspects of the development needs for the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors, and of coastal communities, and in addition some schemes directly support CFP obligations on Ireland.

In 2018, a Seafood Training Scheme was launched under the EMFF Programme with the objective of developing skills and knowledge across the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors under five core themes, namely: skills, sustainability, innovation, competitiveness and health and safety at sea and on land.  The Scheme has an allocation of €1.5 million over the course of the Programme, which is expected to end in 2021, with a new Programme under development to ensure continuity of supports to the sector.  This allocation represents 2.6% of the overall funds of €57.3 million allocated specifically within the Programme for the development of the fishing sector or 0.6% of the total Programme budget. 

The Seafood Training Scheme is open to SMEs in the fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing sectors, organisations representing those sectors such as cooperatives and producer organisations, fishing vessel owners and crew, persons active in the aquaculture sector, persons wishing to enter the seafood sector and also Bord Iascaigh Mhara.  No other public bodies are eligible to apply. 

The Fisheries Local Action Groups (FLAGs) are an implementation mechanism under the EMFF Programme for community-led local development of coastal communities and FLAGs can not apply in their own right for funding under the Seafood Training Scheme.  The Seafood Training Scheme is implemented by Bord Iascaigh Mhara.

Bord Iascaigh Mhara is eligible to apply in its own right to my Department for funding under the Seafood Training Scheme for the costs of developing training courses for the sector.  BIM has no specific allocation within the Scheme for this purpose, but in 2020 was approved by my Department for grants of €91,400.

In relation to the Fisheries Local Action Groups, each of the seven FLAGs has published its own Local Development Strategy.  Each of those Strategies includes a financial plan detailing the planned distribution of that particular FLAG's budget.  The amounts that each FLAG plan to award through grants related to training varies for each FLAG.

A separate Technical Assistance Scheme operates under the EMFF Programme to fund the costs of my Department, BIM and the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority in implementing the EMFF Programme.  This includes, among many other elements, the costs of training personnel within those agencies to implement the EMFF Programme and the wider CFP.