Written answers

Tuesday, 11 May 2021

Photo of Aengus Ó SnodaighAengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein)
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955. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the funding and supports that have been provided to the fishing industry on offshore islands in each of the past five years. [23819/21]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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My Department's European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme is the principal source of financial supports to our seafood sector. The Programme includes a range of support schemes that were open to the fishing sector over the past five years, including fishers based on our offshore islands.

This included the Sustainable Fisheries Scheme, which aided capital investments on board fishing vessels, such as for energy efficiency, quality enhancement, health and safety, and value adding. The Scheme also aided capital investments ashore to support fishers in complying with the landing obligation, such as investments by fishing cooperatives in infrastructure such as cold storage and handling equipment.

Separately, the New Fishermen Scheme provided aid to young fishers to acquire their first fishing vessel, while the Inshore Fisheries Conservation Scheme provided aid to inshore vessels for value adding investments ashore such as ice-machines and refrigeration, and aided organisation of inshore fishers through the regional and national inshore fisheries forums and funded development of their inshore fisheries strategy.

The Producer Organisation Scheme supported recognised fisheries Producer Organisations towards the costs of their Production and Marketing Plans and Annual reports, their costs of attending expert meetings and their costs of disseminating information to their members. The Scheme also offered aid to groups of fishers seeking recognition as a Producer Organisation, including office furniture, IT and telecommunications equipment and professional advisory services.

The EMFF Programme also funded Bord Iascaigh Mhara to provide a broad range of services to the fishing sector, including technical advisory services, technical development of fishing gear and practices, training and development, networking and organisation, innovation support services etc.

Each of the above schemes and services was available to fishers on our offshore islands and these were administered by BIM. However, BIM does not separately record if customers are based on our islands and so the amount of funding support to our island fishers cannot be provided.

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