Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 October 2019
496. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the extent to which fish processing here can rely on fish supplies post Brexit; the steps to address such issues; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42238/19]
View answerThe Government published a Contingency Action Plan on 19 December last year, setting out its approach to dealing with a no-deal Brexit. In light of ongoing uncertainty, preparatory work has continued to take account of all possible outcomes.
The Government has already introduced a range of measures to deal with the short-term impacts of Brexit. In terms of dealing with the competitiveness issue, my Department introduced a €150 million low-cost loan scheme and increased funding under the Rural Development and Seafood Development Programmes in the 2017 Budget. In Budget 2018, I, along with my colleague, the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, introduced a new €300 million “Brexit Loan Scheme” to provide affordable, flexible financing to Irish businesses that are either currently impacted by Brexit or who will be in the future – at least 40% of which will be available to agri-food and seafood businesses.
Budget 2020 provides for a “No-Deal” contingency fund to support our most vulnerable sectors. €110 million will be made available in the first tranche, which includes €14 million for support for the fishing fleet as well as support for food companies wishing to re-orient production and marketing towards non-UK markets (€5 million) and to provide necessary support to other sectors to improve competitiveness (€6 million).
Our enterprise agencies are continuing to work with seafood companies to help them to deal with Brexit through making them more competitive, diversifying market exposure, and up-skilling teams. Brexit Information Seminars were held recently in Dublin, Wexford and Cork to help agri-food, including seafood, businesses to prepare for Brexit.
My priority has been, and remains, to maintain existing levels of access to waters and resources. The European Commission has put in place a legal framework to allow the authorisation of EU and UK vessels to continue to fish in each other's waters until 31 December 2019, if agreement is reached between the UK and the EU on such access. The Commission has put forward a proposal to extend this temporary framework to 31 December 2020, if a Withdrawal Agreement is not in place. The Regulation does not provide a commitment of ongoing reciprocal access – it simply creates the necessary legal framework to allow for the possibility of such access. However, in the worst case scenario of a disorderly departure, we can expect that those reciprocal arrangements will be impacted, at least in the very short term.
Both my officials and I have had intensive discussions with the European Commission, other relevant Member States and stakeholders regarding the potential negative impact of a disorderly or no-deal Brexit on the Irish fishing industry and the wider seafood sector as whole. These discussions intensified in recent months and were based on preparatory work already done. I have met with the Irish Fishing Industry regularly since the 23rd June 2016, most recently on the 5th September.
A disorderly departure, that included a loss of access to UK waters, would have very serious consequences for our seafood industry. I am satisfied that, in cooperation with our stakeholders and EU partners, we are doing all that we can to plan to mitigate the potential impacts.
