Written answers

Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Fishing Industry

Photo of Jennifer WhitmoreJennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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931. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the efforts that have been made to resolve an issue for a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7444/22]

Photo of Charlie McConalogueCharlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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I assume the Deputy is referring the unfortunate situation this person finds himself in due to his purchase of an unstable fishing vessel in the Netherlands in 2007. The situation that arose relates to a private commercial transaction between two contracting parties to purchase a vessel. The responsibility for ensuring the authenticity of the details, specifications and stability of the vessel being purchased rested with the purchaser.

The core issue here relates to the safety and safety certification of the vessel purchased by this person. The safety of fishing vessels and safety certification, including matters relating to stability, is the responsibility of the Department of Transport. My Department has no function in relation to the safety certification of fishing vessels or matters arising in relation to their stability.

When the matter was raised with me by this person at a virtual Townhall Meeting last year, I agreed to have a one to one telephone conversation in the context of my legislative remit. This telephone conversation took place on Friday 16th July.

Regarding EU funds, the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme is the principal source of development funding for our seafood sector. The Programme is implemented under the provisions of the EMFF Regulation (508/2014) which specifies to what purposes funds can be granted. There is no particular provision of the EMFF Regulation that would facilitate an ex-gratia payment to compensate a fishing vessel owner as a consequence of a flaw in his fishing vessel. Furthermore, it is not possible to provide a grant for the decommissioning of the vessel concerned, as under the terms of the EMFF Regulation, decommissioning is not permitted after 31 December 2018. The new EU Regulation establishing a European Maritime, Fisheries & Aquaculture Fund for the 2021-27 period entered into force on 7th July 2021 and while the Regulation permits decommissioning in the future, it may only be implemented for very specific purposes concerned with addressing an identified imbalance in a particular fleet segment and only for active fishing vessels.

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