Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 21 July 2020
526. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his attention has been drawn to a failure to ensure sales note return by fish buyers has resulted in almost one quarter of the boats under ten metres in length that applied for the July tie-up scheme have been deemed ineligible; the number of inshore boats being turned down for the temporary tie-up scheme for June 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17102/20]
View answerTo assist with the impacts of the Covid-19 Pandemic on our fisheries sector and in response to requests for aid from fisheries representatives, a Temporary Fleet Tie-up Scheme was introduced under my Department's European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme 2014-20. The Tie-up Scheme is a safety net scheme designed to assist active fishermen who consider that it is not economical to fish in the present market environment, by aiding them to tie-up their vessel for a one or two month period over June to August. The Scheme provides participants with aid to cover the typical fixed costs of the vessel size concerned, complementing the income supports separately available from Government under the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and Wage Subsidy Scheme.
In order to ensure that aid is directed to active fishermen only, and bearing in mind that many smaller vessels in our fleet do not have vessel monitoring systems or EU Logbooks, a scheme requirement was introduced that applicants must have minimum sales of €5,000 in 2019 recorded on the Sales Notes System operated by the Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA). With some limited exceptions, sales of fish must, by law, be recorded on the Sales Notes System.
The day-to-day operation of the Sales Notes System, including compliance matters, is an operational matter for the SFPA and I am therefore precluded from involvement in this matter.
