Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 18 September 2013
1199. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his plans to replace jobs in communities that depended heavily on drift net salmon fishing; the amount that has been spent to date in these communities to find replacement industries; the number of jobs that have been created; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37989/13]
View answerIn 2007, the then Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources introduced a Salmon Hardship Scheme to help alleviate the impact on commercial salmon fishermen affected by his decision to close the drift net fishery. BIM administered the Scheme on behalf of the Minister and I am advised by BIM that over €23 million was paid out to over 1,000 former drift net salmon fishermen.
In addition, a Community Support Scheme of €5 million was introduced by the then Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, focused primarily on communities where commercial salmon fishing was a well-established activity and where its withdrawal demonstrably impacted on the economic and social fabric of the area.
My Department’s Seafood Development Programme 2007-2013, co-funded by the European Fisheries Fund, presently makes available funding through the Fisheries Local Area Development Scheme to coastal traditional fishing communities to foster employment and diversify their economies away from the catching sector. Six Fishery Local Action Groups (FLAGs) were established in 2012, covering our full coastline. These FLAGs have been working to develop strategies for their respective regions and this year have started to make funding available to projects. The FLAGs themselves select projects for funding. Approximately €1.5 million is available to the FLAGs for the remainder of the Programme for eligible projects.
My Department is presently working on the preparation of that next Seafood Development Programme and has invited submissions by the end of September from interested parties. I expect that the Fisheries Local Area Development Scheme will feature in the next 7 year programming period. I will carefully consider any submissions received relevant to this issue and to what extent it should be prioritised in that next programme relative to other investment priorities for the seafood sector. I would encourage as many people as possible to make submissions under this process.
