Fishing through the winter is difficult in normal circumstances but I am acutely conscious that the adverse weather events since Christmas caused the fishing fleet to be tied up for an unusually long period. The white fish and inshore fleets have been particularly affected. As the catching sector is by definition dependant on being able to go out and catch fish, and crews earn their living through a share of the catch, many fishermen have suffered financially because of this extended period restricted to port. We had some breaks in the weather during February and many of the vessels that were harbour bound due to the severe weather were able to return to fishing and to some extent make up for lost time. No doubt we will continue to have intermittent stormy conditions in the weeks and months ahead, as is normal for this time of year, but I am hopeful that fishermen will be able to put to sea on a regular basis so that they can put that difficult period behind them.
In relation to any specific payments to compensate for lost earnings, the Minister for Social Protection has overall responsibility for funding income support to individuals and families in all sectors who have been unable to work because of adverse weather conditions.
As income from fishing is derived from landings of catch, the amount that can be caught and therefore the income from most fisheries is determined by the EU quotas which are restrictive, and made available under our management arrangements with catch limits set for whitefish each month. The quotas are managed to allow for access to quota for the full twelve months of the year, as far as possible. This may mean in many cases that the allocations made available for certain months are set at low levels, certainly less than Industry would like and would be capable of landing.
I always work very closely with, and I am advised by industry when setting catch limits during the year. Each month, a quota management advisory committee, involving Industry representatives and my Department, meets and examines available quota, uptake levels and the market situation and make recommendations to me on catch limits for the following month. The quota uptake figures for January 2014 and for the first part of February were significantly down. In order that vessel owners and their crews are enabled to compensate as early as possible for these low catch levels, allocations for March were set for a number of the key economic stocks at a higher level than in February. The level recommended by industry took account of concerns not to glut the market with very high landings in a single month and on that basis the arrangements recommended and put in place involve modest increases in key whitefish stocks including cod, haddock and whiting in the Celtic Sea, monkfish and megrim in the Celtic Sea and the hake stock in the Celtic Sea and the North-West.
These increased quotas and fishing opportunities for March will help to re-balance the landings to bring them more into line with planned annual spread of quota uptake. They can be further adjusted in April to take into account the low level of landings in the first 6 weeks of the year.
My Department administers the Fishery Harbour and Coastal Infrastructure Development Programme. As my Department has responsibility for the maintenance and upkeep of Dooagh Pier, repairs in respect of damage caused by the recent storms will be addressed in the context of my Department’s annual capital programme.
On 12 February 2014, I informed the House that as part of its overall co-ordinated response to the impact of the recent unprecedented weather conditions, the Government had decided to allocate an additional €8.8 million for the repair of the Local Authority owned pier, harbour and slipway network linked to fisheries and aquaculture and to allocate up to €1.5 million to assist inshore fishermen in replacing lobster/crab and shrimp pots lost or destroyed in the storms. The Deputies will agree that these are significant interventions in the current economic circumstances and are a clear indication of this Government's commitment to assisting rural coastal communities and the inshore fishing sector with their recovery from the storms.
BIM has since opened, for applications, a new scheme providing aid of up to €2,400 for the replacement of pots lost in the storms. In relation to the Local Authority owned pier, harbour and slipway network linked to fisheries and aquaculture, my Department invited applications for funding from Local Authorities, indicating their funding priorities, and these have now been received and are being assessed.
