Council welcome FLAG funding for maritime projects in Fingal

Fingal County Council has welcomed the announcement by the North East Fisheries Local Action Group that seven projects in Fingal will receive grant aid totalling €183,947 which will deliver a total investment of €365,894.

The announcement was made by the Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Andrew Doyle, TD, at a function hosted in the National Maritime Museum of Ireland, Dun Laoghaire, by Bord Iascaigh Mhara and FLAG North East. The launch was attended by Cllr. Kieran Dennison, Chair of the Fingal County Council Strategic Policy Committee for Economic, Enterprise and Tourism and David Pryor, Fingal County Council’s FLAG North East Board Member.

Pictured at the announcement were Cllr Kieran Dennison, Chair of Fingal County Council’s Strategic Policy Committee on Economic Enterprise and Tourism; Andrew Doyle, TD, Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Jim O’Toole, CEO, Bord Iascaigh Mharam Garret O’Brien, Chair of North East Fisheries Local Action Group, and David Pryor, Fingal County Council’s FLAG North East Board Member

Overall, 13 FLAG projects were approved which will deliver an overall investment of €434,337 across coastal communities in Dublin, Louth and Meath with the seven Fingal projects accounting for 80 per cent of the total investment.

These projects will generate 15.5 full-time new jobs and support an additional 15.5 indirect jobs as they contribute to showcasing the seafood, heritage and tourism offering of the coastal communities of the Northeast FLAG region, while also helping create a sustainable future for those communities.

Fingal County Council has been an active member of the FLAG North East Board since 2012 and held joint funding events with Clann Credo, Fingal PPN, LEADER and a number of animation events and project workshops in Fingal in 2016 and 2017, following the finalisation and launch of the seven national FLAG strategies.

Welcoming the funding, the Chief Executive of Fingal County Council, Paul Reid said: “The coastal communities are an important element of the fabric of Fingal and are an important part of the local economy. Fingal County Council supports the maritime industry within the county in many practical ways and any additional funding which will strengthen this important industry and create more jobs is to be welcomed. “

Cllr. Kieran Dennison noted the “strong role Fingal based projects plays within the FLAG North East region in particular with in Food, Heritage and Tourism markets”.

The Chair of FLAG North East, Garret O’Brien, added that “a high level of interest has been conveyed from recent workshops held in County Hall in Swords and we are taking project applications up to September 15, 2017 for 2017 and 2018 for investment purposes”.

The FLAG North East area comprises the coastal zones of Counties Louth, Meath and Dublin and has a relatively strong urban structure with 77% of electoral divisions falling into the aggregate urban category of over 1,500 inhabitants. In the three Counties, the most densely populated zones are located in the coastal regions. It is one of seven regional FLAG groups that operate under the FLAG programme, co-funded by the Exchequer and European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and contributes to the Action Plan for Rural Development.

Administered by BIM, the scheme will provide €12 million in funding to Ireland’s coastal communities over the duration of the programme from 2014 – 2022.

Further information on FLAG North East can be obtained from http://www.bim.ie/media/bim/content/funding-forms/flags/6081-BIM-FLAG-North-East-1.pdf
The BIM press release of the funding announcement can be viewed at http://www.bim.ie/news-and-events/content,110562,en.html

The seven Fingal projects are:

Applicant	Project	Private Investment	FLAG NE Grant	Total Investment
Lambay Estate Company	Lambay Island Water Infrastructure	50,000	50,000	100,000
Egan’s Ocean Fresh	Dublin Fish Market	65,950	65,950	131,900
Lambay Crab & Lobster	New premises	8,705	8,705	17,410
Friends of Howth Maritime Museum	Howth Maritime Experience	4,000	6,000	10,000
Fingal Adventure Centre Rush	Adventure Centre North Beach Rush	45,867	45,867	91,734
Doran’s Skippers Mate	Technology Feasibility Study	2,425	2,425	4,850
Doran’s School of Fish	Business Plan	5,000	5,000	10,000
Totals		181,947	183,947	365,894

Source: BIM, July 28, 2017.