As this is my first visit to the new committee, I congratulate you on becoming Chairman. Dealing as it does with Agriculture, Food and the Marine, this committee is important to the life of the country. I also wish to congratulate Deputy Blaney on his appointment as Vice-Chairman of the committee. I note that Deputy Sheehan is acting as a convenor and I wish him well with that task. He probably has the most difficult task of all.
The area covered by the committee is an interesting one. In general terms, my Department covers a fairly wide area, including the Marine and Natural Resources. It might be useful if we arranged a meeting, from mid-January, with the committee in the Department of the Marine to present the different areas. In that way Members would have a reasonably clear picture of what we are doing. We could have lunch and make a presentation to Members, if that suits the committee. We can make arrangements for a suitable time once the Chairman has discussed it with Members of the committee.
This Supplementary Estimate is a token one, which, in effect, means shifting the money around within the departmental heads and including a token amount of £1,000 in the Estimate. Deputies will have a copy of the Supplementary Estimate and will have received a briefing note from the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources in relation to what is proposed. The Supplementary Estimate, which is for a token amount of £1,000, proposes increases in spending by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara and the Salmon Research Agency together with a repayment to the Central Fund. This Supplementary Estimate funds important developments and reflects continuing progress in specific areas of the marine sector.
I should mention that the officials present include Ms Sarah White, who is an Assistant Secretary of the Department, dealing with inland fisheries and some other areas. We also have a representative of the Department of Finance in relation to the Irish Shipping issue in case there are any important points we cannot cover.
As regards subhead F.3 - the Salmon Research Agency - the Supplementary Estimate proposes the grant of an additional £190,000 to the Salmon Research Agency. This is a national agency under the aegis of the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources engaged in research on salmon and sea trout. Over the years the agency has made a valuable contribution to national programmes on salmon and sea trout research. Its original brief was to undertake research on salmonid breeding, rearing techniques and census work on wild populations. It also derived a significant proportion of its income from the sale of ova and fish for ongrowinq to the aquaculture industry.
The work programmes of the agency have increased in recent years reflecting the ecological and economic importance attached to our national wild salmonid resources. Serious international and national concerns about the state of Atlantic salmon stocks underline the absolute necessity for effective stock assessment and research programmes to inform management decisions. The SRA has been to the forefront of this work at home and at international level.
Until recent years, the agency had been in a position of effectively financing its research activities from its own resources. Its financial difficulties are due to a decline in income from own resources, stemming from 1992 when the agency's commercial salmon smolt business collapsed due to market and disease problems.
The agency has been caught between increasing research demands and a collapse of its income from "own resources". It has been difficult to maintain the level of operations which it deems necessary to carry out its commitments in national and EU research.
I firmly believe that applied research is the key to progress in any area. Development of the marine resource is dependent upon understanding the opportunities that these resources can generate. There are exciting challenges and opportunities opening up for Irish marine research and I am committed to ensuring that the necessary research capability is in place to underpin development. The Marine Institute, established in 1992, has been developing a wide ranging agenda to drive forward marine research. As part of the process, the Salmon Research Agency will shortly be merged with the Marine Institute. This will place the agency in a dedicated management structure and will put the work of the agency in a wider scientific context. The merger will provide the agency with a greater stability of funding than it has at present, through both the annual Estimates process and the availability of funding for research and from the EU and other sources. To enable the agency to meet its obligations in 1997 it is proposed to allocate additional funding of £190,000.
Under subhead H.1 - An Bord Iascaigh Mhara - Administration and Current Development (Grant-in-Aid) - BIM, which is responsible for the overall development of the Irish fishing and aquaculture industry, provides a wide range of financial, technical, educational, resource development and marketing services to the catching, processing and marketing sectors.
To enable An Bord Iascaigh Mhara to meet its obligations in 1997 it is proposed to allocate additional funding of £204,000. The proposals are as follows: £82,000 in respect of additional costs imposed on BIM following a recent review of the rent on its headquarters premises; £60,000 in respect of the part-financing of the recent trade mission to China; £30,000 in respect of unbudgeted superannuation costs; £20,000 to fund a consultancy study on incentives for the fishing fleet; and £12,000 in respect of research projects.
I would like to elaborate on the specific proposals. As regards premises, £82,000 is being sought to fund the additional costs imposed on BIM following a recently concluded review of the rent on its headquarters at Crofton Road, Dún Laoghaire. The additional funding sought will cover arrears due for the final quarter of 1996 and the additional rental costs for 1997.
As regards the trade mission, on the marketing side, BIM is responsible for promoting consumption of seafood on the domestic market and working closely with Irish exporters in an effort to increase exports of Irish seafood to overseas markets. In 1996, for the first time, seafood exports exceeded a quarter of a billion pounds in value while seafood consumption reached a record level of 9 kgs per person.
BIM's programme for marketing for l997 provided for a total expenditure of some £480,000, 75 per cent of which is funded by the EU. The programme comprises a home market campaign and export development programme. The export development campaign comprises three elements: trade promotion including visits to Ireland by overseas buyers and journalists and trade show participation; market research studies in the UK, the purpose of which is to identify opportunities for Irish companies by test marketing consumer reaction to a range of seafood products and a quality improvement programme which will build on work already undertaken on development of codes of practice for salmon, gigas oysters and clams, with emphasis on developing quality assurance throughout the industry. Participation at the Chinese Fisheries Expo which was held from 4-6 November in Beijing was not originally planned as part of the 1997 programme. However, following an investigation of market opportunities combined with an invitation from the organisers of the Chinese show, BIM decided to host a stand at this, the target fisheries exhibition in the Asia region.
The potential offered by China's status as the biggest single seafood market in the world resulted in a much greater level of interest from the industry than originally anticipated and involved all seafood sectors from smoked and fresh salmon through live and processed shellfish to pelagic product. In addition to taking the initiative to showcase Irish fish at the Expo, a market study approach was adopted, to include visits to fresh fish markets, processing facilities and fish farming operations. Due to the scale of the delegation - there were 19 companies in total - and the importance of making contacts at the highest levels with Ministers, officials and State company representatives, I accepted BIM's invitation to head the delegation myself.
The visit proved to be a great success on a number of fronts. It provided an unprecedented opportunity for a large cross-section of Irish seafood exporters to assess the market and its characteristics and requirements and open up channels of communication with some of the largest, state-backed, seafood importing enterprises in the world with a view to building real business opportunities. The visit also enhanced the status of Ireland as a supply source at the highest levels in China via the largest ever Irish delegation to the market and provided the opportunity for link-ups and technology transfer in the aquaculture and fisheries sector. I am confident that the medium to longer term outcome will be very positive for sales of Irish seafood to the Chinese market. The total cost of the visit amounted to £97,500. Of this amount £37,500 is being funded from BIM's existing 1997 marketing budget leaving a deficit of £60,000.
As regards the whitefish development programme, the Government's Action Programme for the Millennium commits to seeking to upgrade our whitefish fleet and to make the industry attractive to providers of capital by examining the provision of tax based incentives. In line with this commitment I am examining urgently the scope for incentives to attract much needed investment into our fishing fleet, and the whitefish fleet in particular. BIM engaged Arthur Andersen, Consultants, to assist in the necessary financial analysis to underpin proposals in that regard at an estimated cost of £20,000.
As regards other items, £30,000 is sought to fund preserved pension/gratuity rights associated with two BIM employees who left the company some years ago. It is proposed to allocate £12,000 towards two research projects. The first will examine the feasibility of extending the life span of the lobster in order to take advantage of premium prices available in the Christmas period while the second will examine the potential for commercial exploitation of razorfish.
As regards repayment to the Central Fund, the final proposal relates to a voted capital provision to cover the proposed recoupment to the Central Fund of past expenditure from the fund on foot of State guarantees given in respect of borrowings by Irish Shipping Limited under the Irish Shipping Limited Acts, 1947 to 1984. The expenditure from the Vote will be matched by a corresponding Exchequer capital receipt in the 1997 Finance accounts.
Irish Shipping Limited went into liquidation in November 1984. Part of the borrowings of the company was guaranteed by the Minister for Finance pursuant to the Irish Shipping Limited Acts, 1947 to 1984. When the company went into liquidation, a total sum of £96,593,171 was paid out of the Central Fund in respect of its accrued liabilities.
Under the provisions of the Irish Shipping Limited Acts, any moneys paid out of the Central Fund under the guarantees and not recouped from the company must be recovered from moneys voted by the Oireachtas. To date, the total recoupment to the Central Fund amounts to £94,311,135. A residual amount of £2,282,036 is still outstanding and repayable to the fund. As the liquidation of Irish Shipping has recently been finalised by the liquidator, it is now necessary for the Vote to recoup this outstanding amount to the Central Fund. This is the reason for the proposal before the committee. It is a technical, bookkeeping exercise which involves no actual expenditure.
These are the measures proposed and I hope the committee considers them worthwhile. The offsetting provisions have been outlined in the briefing note supplied. I look forward to our discussions.
