Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 September 2021
811. Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if he will review the conditions in relation to improving fishing effort for boats under 10 m under the tie-up scheme being administered by BIM as there is no obligation on these boats to keep logbooks of fishing; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43911/21]
View answerOn 3 September 2021, I announced the launch of a Brexit Temporary Fleet Tie-up Scheme to help mitigate the impacts of quota cuts on the fishing fleet arising from the Trade and Cooperation Agreement agreed in December between the European Union and the UK. The scheme delivers on a recommendation of the Seafood Sector Task Force in its June 2021 Interim Report. The scheme is targeted at white fish vessels in the Polyvalent and Beam Trawl segments. Eligible vessels may apply to tie-up at the quayside for a one-month period during October to December 2021 and receive a payment compensating for the lost fishing income. The vessel owners will in turn be required to distribute one third of that payment to crew.
As part of the State Aid approval for the scheme, the European Commission required that the scheme generally mirror the rules for temporary cessation schemes under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund. In particular, we were obliged to limit eligibility to vessels that had engaged in fishing activities at sea for two consecutive years (either 2018/19 or 2019/20). It is not possible to disregard this rule.
Fishing vessels under 10 metres are not required to record their catch in EU logbooks and the scheme recognises this by instead allowing these vessels to demonstrate that they meet the rule concerning 120 days fishing activity through a combination of a self-declaration and the records of their landings recorded on the Sales Notes System maintained by the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority.
