Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 January 2021
1114. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine his views on a matter (details supplied) regarding supports for fishermen; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45038/20]
View answerThroughout the Covid-19 pandemic, Government has made available financial and other supports for employees and businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic. Both the Pandemic Unemployment Payment and the Wage Subsidy Scheme and its successors have supported the incomes of employees and the self-employed in our seafood sector. Government has also made available low-cost loans to seafood businesses for working capital and other purposes.
My Department's European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme continues to offer financial supports to fishermen, aquaculture enterprises, seafood processors and coastal communities for a broad range of measures, including capital investment, professional advice, innovation, marketing, training and capacity building, fisheries management, and socio-economic development. Any covid-specific supports I make available must be within the confines of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Regulation and EU State Aid rules.
In 2020, the European Union amended the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Regulation to ensure that Member States’ 2014-20 EMFF Operational Programmes could be used to support their seafood sectors from the specific impacts of the pandemic. However, the EU provided no additional funds for this purpose and the measures available through the amendments were allowed only up to 31 December 2020.
For the fishing sector, two options were available to Member States, either a fleet tie-up scheme or a storage aid market support scheme. During discussions with fishing representatives earlier in 2020 it was made clear that storage aid was not wanted by the sector. Instead a temporary fleet tie-up scheme was implemented over three months from June to August 2020 to support the fixed costs of vessel owners who chose to tie-up during periods of market turbulence, with the Pandemic Unemployment Payment complementing such a scheme by supporting the incomes of crew. As the Regulation confined such supports to fishing vessels, the scheme was available to registered fishing vessels only and vessels in the aquaculture segment of the fleet could not be accommodated.
In relation to the aquaculture sector, the amendment to the EMFF Regulation allowed Member States to pay compensation to aquaculture enterprises for the lost sales or production caused by the pandemic. The representative body for the aquaculture sector sought such supports for shellfish producers and I implemented a support scheme for oyster and rope mussel producers towards the end of 2020.
