Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 February 2024
98. Deputy David Stanton asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the situation with respect to BALAMI funding for the dredging of Ballycotton Harbour, County Cork; his Department’s role in same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8387/24]
View answerOn the 25th of January, I announced the allocation of €12.7m for 15 local authority marine infrastructure projects, the Ballycotton Harbour dredging project among them. These projects were previously put forward by the local authorities under the Brexit Adjustment Local Authority Marine Infrastructure (BALAMI) Scheme 2022-2023. The Scheme was conceived by the Seafood Taskforce to use the unique funding of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve to deliver, improve and rejuvenate marine public infrastructure.
Under the BALAMI Scheme I approved funding of up to €55.3m for 163 projects across 13 coastal local authorities. Cork County Council was approved for €6.3m for 21 marine infrastructure projects located along its coastline. The Ballycotton Harbour dredging project received approval for €1.8m but encountered delivery challenges in relation to consents and environmental restrictions around the schedule of works that inhibited delivery within the eligibility period of the Brexit Adjustment Reserve.
In view of the importance of this project to the local fishing community at Ballycotton and in view of that sector's exposure to the impacts of Brexit I decided that this project needs to be delivered and agreed to fund up to €1.8m to Cork County Council. It is up to the Council now to allocate co-funding and to deliver the project during 2024.
