Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 February 2021
347. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if his Department has examined treating Irish fishers and their industry in a similar fashion to the bed and breakfast industry, which allows non-rate paying businesses to seek access to emergency financial supports that have been put in place due to Covid-19 disruption; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10745/21]
View answerI understand that the Restart Grant Plus for B&Bs, implemented by Fáilte Ireland on behalf of the Minister for Enterprise Trade and employment, is implemented under the Temporary State Aid Framework introduced by the European Commission to facilitate Member States in supporting sectors most impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic.
My Department's €240 million European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme 2014-20 is the principal source of financial supports for our seafood sector. The Programme supports a wide variety of measures, including capital investment, innovation, professional advisory services, marketing and training, among others.
In 2020, the EU EMFF Regulation was amended to facilitate Member States in providing COVID supports to seafood enterprises. The EMFF supports that could be provided to the fishing sector were quite specific, either a temporary fleet tie-up scheme or a storage aid market support scheme. The Regulation did not permit a more general financial support scheme similar to Restart Plus. Representatives of the fishing sector expressed a strong preference for a tie-up scheme, rather than storage aid, and thus a COVID-19 Temporary Fleet Tie-up Scheme was implemented over the June to August period. The COVID supports under the EMFF Regulation ceased to be permitted after 31 December 2020.
It is anticipated that an EU Regulation establishing a new fund for the 2021-27 period, the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund, will be enacted in April 2021. My Department has been working for some time on developing Ireland's Seafood Development Programme 2021-27 under the new EU Regulation, and I anticipate that it will be in place later this year.
