Vol. 457 No. 1
39 Ms O'Donnell asked the Minister for the Marine whether compensation paid to crew members under the fishermen's aid scheme was confined in each case to the maximum rate of unemployment assistance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13688/95]
As Deputies will be aware, an emergency aid scheme was introduced in April 1994 in order to compensate fishermen and boat owners for loss of earnings arising from prolonged bad weather during a 20 week period from November 1993 to March 1994.
A key objective of the scheme was to ensure that crew members who had suffered genuine hardship and who were not otherwise eligible for payments under Social Welfare schemes would be compensated for loss of earnings during the period. Payments to crew members were based on what would have been the appropriate rate of support available under the Social Welfare unemployment assistance scheme. In calculating payments to individual crew members account was taken of such matters as family dependants, income from fishing and from other sources and any Social Welfare payments received. The maximum payment that an individual crew member could receive was equivalent to what would have been his full entitlement under the Social Welfare system, had he been eligible.
