Holly Cairns
Question:619. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if a support scheme will be provided for fishers similar to the support scheme for beef finishing farms. [12652/20]
View answerTuesday, 23 June 2020
Questions (619)
Written answers
I am very conscious of the disruptions to international seafood markets arising from the Covid-19 Pandemic and the impacts on our export markets and prices for our seafood. There are, of course, similar impacts across the food sector and indeed the wider economy. With the gradual re-opening of economies in Europe and Asia, there are already positive signs of improved market conditions and I anticipate that this improvement will continue in the coming weeks and months.
In response to intense lobbying from Member States and industry, the European Union amended the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Regulation to make certain types of supports specifically relating to the impacts of Covid-19 eligible for EMFF aid under Member State's EMFF Operational Programmes, together with the existing array of supports for capital investment, innovation, marketing, and professional advisory services. However, no additional EU funds were made available to Member States to assist in implementing these new measures, so our capacity to use these measures is subject to the level of uncommitted funds remaining in Ireland’s EMFF Programme, and to the availability of uncommitted funds in BIM’s 2020 budget. It is important to note that BIM continues to pay out on grants previously awarded and seafood enterprises continue to apply for new EMFF grants, including some that cite Covid-19 as the reason for their proposed projects.
One of the measures made available by the EU in response to the Pandemic is aid for temporary tie-up of fishing vessels and, in my meetings with fishing representatives, selective tie-up aid was the overwhelming request for support in order to reduce the amount of fish being brought to market to match supply with demand and support prices. In response to those requests, I announced a Covid-19 Temporary Fleet Tie-up Scheme on 8 May with three one-month tie up periods to commence on 1 June and end on 31 August. The Tie-up Scheme is a safety net scheme designed to complement the Covid-19 Pandemic Unemployment Benefit and Wage Subsidy Scheme that are available to fishermen to support their incomes where is it not viable for them to fish. The Tie-up Scheme provides a payment to participating fishermen to cover the fixed costs of fishing vessels choosing to tie-up. So far there is a steady level of applications under the Scheme, particularly from the smaller inshore vessels.
I will be reviewing the Scheme at the end of June to ensure it is achieving its objectives and that market conditions continue to warrant its operation.