Deployment of BIM staff and their roles and responsibilities within that agency is an internal operational matter for BIM. I have no role in relation to that matter. That said, I launched BIM’s new strategy for the seafood sector for the period 2013 – 2017 was launched on 17 July this year. The strategy is called Capturing Ireland’s Share of The Global Seafood Opportunity. The strategy sets targets for the creation of 1,200 additional jobs and is aligned to a total sales value of €1 billion (including €650m from exports) by the end of 2017. BIM’s vision for the future, as set out in this new strategy, is designed to deliver on the Government’s targets set out in Food Harvest 2020 and to underpin the growing importance of the seafood sector to the Irish economy.
My Department’s Seafood Development Programme 2007-2013, co-funded by the European Fisheries Fund, presently makes available funding through the Fisheries Local Area Development Scheme to coastal traditional fishing communities to foster employment and diversify their economies to lessen their dependence on the catching sector. Six Fishery Local Action Groups (FLAGs) were established in 2012, covering our full coastline. These FLAGs have been working to develop strategies for their respective regions and this year have started to make funding available to projects. The FLAGs themselves select projects for funding. Approximately €1.5 million is available to the FLAGs for the remainder of the Programme for eligible projects.
My Department is also working on the preparation of the next Seafood Development Programme for the period 2014 to 2020. Submissions were invited by 27 September from interested parties. I expect that the Fisheries Local Area Development Scheme will feature in that next 7 year programming period. I will carefully consider any submissions received relevant to this issue and to what extent it should be prioritised in that next programme relative to other investment priorities for the seafood sector.
Additionally, the newly reformed CFP, brokered by the Irish Presidency and due to come into force from the 1st of January 2014, will allow for the rebuilding of fish stocks in European waters and will allow for significant quota increases for Irish fishermen through long term management of stocks, reducing and eliminating discards where possible and rebuilding stocks to Maximum Sustainable Yield. All of these measures hold the potential to substantially increase catches by Irish fishermen in the short and medium term. The reforms agreed will govern the nature and operation of Irish and EU fisheries for the foreseeable future and are designed to usher in a new era of more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable fishing across EU waters.
