Tag Archives: Seafood Task Force
Trawler decommissioning scheme ‘needs to be better funded’
Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue needs to put additional funding into the State’s decommissioning scheme for fishing trawlers to make it viable, industry representatives have said. His comments follow the news that the owners of just 20 fishing boats had so far accepted State offers to decommission. The scheme was originally capped at €60m, before Mr McConalogue later increased that to €75m. However, Mr Murphy said the funding is inadequate. “Europe was originally told the scheme could cost €96m but he went for a smaller amount. The decommissioning scheme has proved unpopular as boat owners accepted for decommissioning will only get a proportion of the total value of their boats back. >click to read< 09: 47
Ireland: Only 20 fishing boat owners accept State’s decommissioning offer
Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) has admitted the low uptake in a statement issued to mark the opening of today’s Skipper’s Expo trade show, which it sponsors. Although the statement centred around the publication of its two-year study on the fishing industry’s carbon footprint, it mentioned the controversial decommissioning scheme in passing. Of the take-up and the fact that less than half have gone for it, BIM simply said: “Some 57 letters of offer have been issued with total funding of €75m. To date 20 owners have accepted.” The current scheme and a number of tie-up schemes over the past two years were designed to help mitigate against the quota and financial losses Irish fishers sustained because of Brexit. >click to read< 10:16
Calls for €12m fund to help inshore fishing industry
The Government is to be asked to give Ireland’s inshore fishers more than €12m to help them deal with the disruption to their markets caused by the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. The market in shrimp, for example, has collapsed, with one group of around 600 smaller inshore fishers losing an estimated total of €5m in the build-up to last Christmas. Their representatives have seen more than €100m in packages to help the much larger, offshore sector boat owners deal with the negative impacts of Brexit, which is mainly the cut in quota and resulting 40% fall in income. But they say that despite having 91% of the country’s entire fishing fleet, and employing the majority of Irish fishers, Ireland’s inshore sector has, by comparison, received around €3.7m. >click to read< 11:26
One-third of Ireland’s offshore fishing fleet apply for decommissioning scheme
Just over 60 trawlers from the country’s 180-strong offshore fishing fleet have all applied to the Government’s decommissioning scheme. Some 19 of the 64 applicants are from Castletownbere,,, If all of those who apply for decommissioning accept it, it will be a blow for Castletownbere, not just for the fishing industry, but also for local businesses that rely on boats for a sizeable income. Alan Carleton, who applied to decommission his family’s trawler Syracuse, says he can no longer afford to be a fisherman. “My income has gone down over the past few years, but my costs have shot up,” he said. >click to read< 12:53
