Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 20 May 2021
74. Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the full State and EU funding that will be available to the fishing industry to implement the recommendation that will come from the Seafood Taskforce; and the estimated amount of funding available. [27057/21]
View answerI have asked the Seafood Sector Taskforce to examine the implications arising from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement agreed between the European Union and the UK for the Irish Fishing industry and coastal communities particularly dependent upon it and to recommend initiatives that could be taken to provide supports for development and restructuring so as to ensure a profitable and sustainable fishing fleet and to identify opportunities for jobs and economic activity in coastal communities dependent on fishing.
In this context, I have asked the Taskforce to consider how all available funding streams could be used to address, to the extent possible, the initiatives identified and the State agencies to support those initiatives. While the Brexit Adjustment Reserve and the European Maritime Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund will be very important elements in the implementation of the recommendations of the Taskforce, they should not be considered the only sources of funding and, in the first instance, it is a matter for the Taskforce to consider appropriate funding sources for recommendations they may make.
The Commission's proposals for a regulation on a Brexit Adjustment Reserve were published in December 2020 and, at this time, the Council has agreed its position on the text. Trilateral discussions between the Council, Parliament and Commission will, in due course, give us a final text.
The text of the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund Regulation for the 2021-27 period was agreed in December 2020 but will not be enacted until June or July this year.
