Fishing industry fears €300m Brexit fund will be squandered
Fishing Was Allocated €267 Photo: Of File To Million Total As Industry Sectors The David The Schemes In Cheskin/pa January,
A "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity worth more than €300 million to transform the Irish fishing industry is at risk of being "squandered", according to fishing industry representatives.
The money is from the €1.2 billion that the EU promised Ireland from the Brexit Adjustment Reserve (BAR) fund that was set up to help member states deal with the fall-out from Brexit. Member states have to first fund their various schemes to support different industries affected by Brexit and then claim the money back from the EU.
In the case of the fishing industry, anybody who gets money has to have it spent by October, and an audit and report by An Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) on the spent funds has then to be submitted to the EU by December 31.
The fishing industry is, however, worried there won't be enough time left to actually spend the money because the State has taken so long to decide what to do with it. The French fishing industry, for example, was able to start spending its allocated funds back in March 2021.
However, it took the Department of Agriculture until October 2021 to just produce a report with recommendations on how the BAR-related fund should be spent. More than a year on, various government departments have yet to sign off on a number of projects earmarked for the monies.
To date, it is estimated that around €60 million has been spent by the fishing industry since Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue's seafood taskforce recommended in 2021 the industry get €423 million in BAR-related funding.
As of January, the total allocated to sectors in the fishing industry schemes was €267 million, far short of the original recommended figure.
Irish Fish Processors & Exporters Association CEO, Brendan Byrne, said: “Ireland is in the process of missing what should have been a great opportunity to transform its fishing sector.
“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity but we are in the process of just losing it, and the industry is very annoyed about this.
“When you consider the French started spending on this scheme in March 2021, it is ridiculous that it took Ireland until October 2021 just to figure out what to spend the money on.
“Added to that, we are more than another year on from the publication of the taskforce report and civil servants still haven’t signed off on all projects.
“It is taking so long for the industry to either access funds or to even be told what it is getting that we are now worried we simply won’t have time to spend the money if or when we get it.”
He added:
Compounding the delay in getting funds to the fishing industry are worldwide shortages of materials and supply line issues.
This means a variety of projects have to wait longer before they can get materials.
Another factor at play is an industry-wide concern that the criteria for applying for funds are too restrictive.
For example, last week, BIM released a statement in which it said just 20 boat owners out of 57 who had applied to join the government's €75 million Brexit Voluntary Decommissioning Scheme had accepted.
The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Expenditure and Reform and BIM were asked for figures for how much will be given to the fishing industry and by what date.
They were also asked if they had a response to the concerns being expressed in the industry.