Bernard Durkan
Question:154. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which fish processing facilities remain adequate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5915/19]
View answerWednesday, 6 February 2019
Questions (154)
Written answers
There are currently 201 approved land-based seafood processors in Ireland which are, in the main, located in and around our fishing ports. The scale of operation of the processors varies from micro enterprises to medium sized enterprises and large enterprises.
A range of supports are available to seafood processors under my Department's €238 million European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Operational Programme (EMFF) 2014-20. An enterprise may, subject to the size of its operation, apply for capital investment supports to its local Fisheries Local Action Group or to Bord Iascaigh Mhara as appropriate. In addition, further EMFF supports are available to processing enterprises under the EMFF Seafood Innovation and Business Planning Scheme for innovation, new product development and business planning, while supports for market research and route to market structures are available under the EMFF Seafood Scaling and New Market Development Scheme, jointly implemented by Bord Iascaigh Mhara and Bord Bia.