asked the Minister for the Marine the reason he failed to secure FEOGA grants from the European Commission for the Irish fishing fleet at its recent meeting; the plans he has to assist in the building of 70 new fishing vessels announced by him in the BIM development plan; and the way in which he envisaged 4,400 new jobs in the fishing industry by 1990.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - FEOGA Grants.
2.
Ireland in the latest FEOGA tranche for fisheries will secure a total of 1.597 million ECUs for aquaculture and fleet development. Decisions on the allocation for fish processing will not be available for some time yet.
The total allocation for aquaculture for Irish promoters comes to 1.117 million ECUs.
As regards fleet development, 480,000 ECUs has been approved for refurbishment and modernisation. A total of 19 projects are involved.
As regards fleet construction, as the Deputy will be aware, the EC Commission, which has exclusive responsibility in this regard, has generally speaking maintained a policy of not aiding boat construction for the past two years. The reasons for this are related to the over-capacity in the Community's fishing fleet and the programme the Community has for its reduction. I should add that those difficulties had been created for us and were not of our own making. However, we realise that we are in Government and are responsible for the decisions of previous Governments. I repeat that a decision was taken by the previous administration when they communicated to the Commission that we had a gross registered tonnage of 32,000 tonnes. That was a gross underestimate, to say the least, which has created problems for us. However, as I have said, we are in Government and we are prepared to accept responsibility and are doing our utmost to resolve the difficulty and we have been successful.
The Commission has maintained this policy on this occasion for those countries such as Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Belgium, which the Commission sees as having the greatest difficulties. Significantly, however, there has been a relaxation, albeit minor, in respect of some other countries where the excess fleet capacity is seen to be of a lesser order of magnitude than in the group of countries I have just mentioned and where the Commission have formed the view that the targets the Commission have set out are capable of being achieved. This augurs well for the possibility of the renewal of the giving of construction grants to countries such as our own.
We are in discussions with the Commission on the implementation of the Irish programme and we hope, in co-operation with the industry, to be in a position soon to finally convince it of the special merits of our case, that is, that the figure of 32,000 tonnes was much less than the registered tonnage on the water. This should open the way to the financing of the new vessels required for the Irish fleet. Might I add, a Cheann Comhairle, that I was disappointed that there were no grants for the construction of new vessels, even though we had our applications in, but I think the House will accept that we are put in a very invidious position as we must be responsible for the mistakes of previous administrations.
While fleet development is, of course, an important element of our development strategy for the fishing industry, our plans are much wider in scope and coverage than just the fleet. These plans also relate to pocessing, aquaculture and ancillary services. The additional first time employment, both full and part time, envisaged in the development plan is expected to be achieved as follows: aquaculture, 2,140 jobs; fisheries, 800 jobs; processing, 1,040 jobs; ancillary services, 390 jobs. We are determined to ensure that these targets will be met and, indeed, the indications already are that in most categories they are on the way to being well achieved.
I call Deputy Taylor-Quinn. A brief question, please, Deputy, as I want to dispose of another question if I can.
Can the Minister justify to this House and to the beleaguered fishermen of Ireland why other countries, such as Spain, which has the largest fishing fleet in Europe, and Germany, which is one of the largest countries in Europe, have been allocated FEOGA grants to beef up their fishing fleets while Ireland, which has an underdeveloped fleet, will not get this aid? Will the Minister justify the statements of intent that he and the Minister have made about the BIM programme to create 4,400 jobs while the fishermen cannot improve their fishing fleets or buy new vessels, because the Minister has allowed the situation to develop in which Ireland is not being provided with FEOGA grants?
Despite the best endeavours of the Chair, we are not going to dispose of many more questions.
I can answer the question——
I have called No. 3.
The Minister has a responsibility to this House——
I recognise the letter heading.
This is an abuse of priority time.
The Minister is refusing to answer.
I have answered Mr. Murrin already.
This is a sensitive issue.