Fishing skippers have four weeks to apply for the State's first buy- out scheme for whitefish vessels which has been sanctioned this week by the European Commission.
The €45 million scheme, which was approved by Government during the summer, will allow owners of up to 25 per cent of the whitefish fleet to decommission their vessels in return for compensation. Ireland is one of the few EU member states which does not have such a scheme in place at a time of increasing difficulty within the European commercial fishing sector.
Details of the initiative were announced in Howth harbour, Co Dublin, yesterday by Minister of State for the Marine Pat "The Cope" Gallagher.
He predicted that the first payments would be made to successful applicants before the end of the year. The scheme mirrors one which was recommended by former IDA chief executive Padraic White in a report to the Government last July.
The programme targeted older, larger and more active vessels in the whitefish sector, Mr Gallagher said, and included scallop vessels which had run into difficulties over quotas earlier in the year.
Referring to the difficulties of shrinking quotas and escalating diesel prices, he said the programme would help to strengthen the economic viability of those boats remaining in the fleet. Applications will be accepted up until November 1st.
Fishing industry organisations have welcomed the scheme, while also pointing out that considerable hardship would have been avoided in some ports if it had been introduced before now.
Lorcan Ó Cinnéide of the Irish Fish Producers' Organisation said he welcomed the speed with which the project had been agreed and developed.
"We also welcome other recent positive developments, such as the establishment of the EU pelagic and northwestern waters regional advisory councils, which give fishing interests a much stronger role in inputting management proposals at EU level," Mr Ó Cinnéide said.
The new councils were established during last year's Irish presidency under the revised Common Fisheries Policy to allow for greater stakeholder involvement.
"However, these positive moves come against a very bleak operating environment for the fishing industry in Ireland."
The industry was "beset by enormous increases in fuel costs which now account for up to 45 per cent of vessel earnings in some cases" and by markets which "are not responding in terms of producer prices".
"These issues must now be tackled with the same urgency and speed as decommissioning has been," he said. His organisation hoped to highlight this at a meeting of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Marine and Natural Resources next week.
