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Departmental Funding

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 15 April 2015

Wednesday, 15 April 2015

Ceisteanna (288)

Thomas Pringle

Ceist:

288. Deputy Thomas Pringle asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the way in which the €241 million development programme for the seafood sector will develop added-value seafood processing in Donegal; the way the funding will be spent protecting vulnerable coastal communities highly dependent on fisheries; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14550/15]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

On 27 March 2015, I announced plans for a new €241 million development programme for the seafood sector for the period up to 2020, co-funded by the EU through the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund. Our Seafood sector is worth in the region of €850 million annually to our economy, with exports growing by 70% since 2009 to €540 million. Seafood is widely recognised as a high growth area of our economy. Through Food Harvest 2020 and this new Seafood Development Programme, I am targeting growth of the seafood industry to €1 billion by 2020, with growth in employment of 3,000 to 14,000 people employed in our coastal communities. The new Seafood Development Programme will be a key element in achievement of that growth target. It will provide the capital to assist seafood enterprises to sustainably grow their production, add value to our seafood exports and create much needed employment in our coastal communities. The draft Seafood Development Programme proposes investment of €24 million in a number of measures specifically intended to foster innovation, value adding and new product development in the seafood processing sector. These are the Seafood Capital Investment Scheme, Seafood Innovation Scheme, Seafood Scaling Scheme and Seafood Leadership Scheme. In addition, €10 million investment in seafood marketing by Bord Bia is proposed.

In relation to coastal communities highly dependent on fisheries, while the Programme as a whole is focussed on the economic development of the seafood sector and the coastal communities that depend on it, the draft Programme is proposing a specific investment of €12 million in Fisheries Local Action Groups. FLAGs were introduced in 2013 under the previous Seafood Development Programme and 6 FLAGs covered the whole coastline. FLAG North focussed on the economic and social development of coastal areas of Donegal. In the new Programme, I am proposing to continue and build on the good work done to date under the FLAGs initiative.

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