Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 11 February 2015
77. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the independent value for money assessments that have been commissioned by his Department to assess the previous and forthcoming operational programmes for fisheries and aquaculture. [6246/15]
View answerIn relation to the present Seafood Development Programme 2007-2013 under the European Fisheries Fund Regulation (1198/2016), ex-post evaluation of the Programme is by law a matter for the European Commission. My Department was responsible for carrying out an interim evaluation of the Programme. This was conducted by independent consultants and published in 2011 and is available on my Department’s website at the following link:
http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/fisheries/marineagenciesandprogrammes/seafooddevelopmentinireland/InterimEvaluationSeafoodDev180612.pdf
In addition, a value for money review of the 2005-2008 decommissioning schemes was conducted in 2011 in accordance with the then Department of Finance Value for Money and Policy Review Initiative. The report of the Review was published on my Department’s website at the following link:
http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/media/migration/publications/2012/FishVFMFinal310112.pdf
My Department is presently finalising a new Seafood Development Programme 2014-2020 under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) Regulation (508/2014). I will be publishing a detailed consultation document and Strategic Environmental Assessment for public consultation in the next month or so, with a view to submitting the new Programme to the Commission by May this year for its consideration and adoption. As required by the EMFF Regulation, an independent ex-ante evaluation is being conducted by consultants on behalf of my Department. That evaluation is still ongoing and the consultants’ report will be published in due course. In addition, the Programme document itself will include an evaluation plan and this will set out details of arrangements to subject expenditure programmes to ongoing evaluation in accordance with the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform’s Capital Appraisal Guidelines.
