Irish seafood ‘can be €1bn sector’

Ireland’s fisheries and aquaculture sector is slated to grow to a €1bn industry with help from a joint state-EU investment package worth €238m.

Marine Minister Simon Coveney said he fought for a near doubling of the funds for the period up to 2020, but almost half the sum will go towards controlling fishing in Irish waters and collecting data.

Announcing agreement on the projects to be funded, the European Commission said: “Due to its geographical position, Ireland has major responsibilities in enforcing the rules of the common fisheries policy, but also in providing sound data for the management of the fisheries and aquaculture sectors.”

The EU contributes €147.6m, while the national contribution is €91.6m to cover the period from 2014 to 2020.

The largest portion, €33.5m, or 23% of the total, is earmarked to help the Irish fleet adjust to regulations that are aimed at better preserving fish species that are threatened by over-fishing.

The policy of discarding fish that are too small or that are not on the catch list has been changed and instead boats now have to land all the fish they catch and not go to sea once their quota is reached.

A sum of €17.3m will go towards marketing of Irish fish products and helping the processing sectors, including very small-scale businesses, and to create new products, using fish species that are not popular.

One tenth of the investment, €14.9m, will assist the aquaculture industry in boosting its competitiveness through research, the use of new technology and better planning.

Support for local development initiatives has received a €6m boost, the biggest increase in funding. It is aimed at creating and keeping jobs in small-scale enterprises and helping local communities.

Fishermen, often forced to stop fishing in a certain area or for a certain species, occasionally argue that local conditions do not warrant this. Now €5.3m will be spent on improving the data and using it to develop future plans.

Mr Coveney said: “I expect now that schemes will be rolled out from the beginning of 2016 to assist seafood enterprises to sustainably grow their production, add value to our seafood exports and create much needed employment in our coastal communities.

“Our seafood sector is worth in the region of €850m annually to our economy and I am aiming to achieve €1bn sales by 2020.”