Shellfish farmers to get urgent help from package

West coast shellfish farmers facing financial ruin this year will be treated "urgently, generously and fairly" in the Government's £2.5 million compensation package, according to the Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Hugh Byrne.

The money was earmarked in a supplementary Estimate agreed the night before last week's Budget, and is aimed at assisting growers who were unable to harvest crop due to bay closures. This has been one of the worst years worldwide for naturally occurring toxins, and rope mussel producers along this coastline were badly hit.

Mr Byrne, who holds special responsibility for aquaculture, told The Irish Times that application forms for compensation would be available before Christmas.

"We have worked hard to develop this industry as part of the Government's commitment to peripheral regions, and the last thing we need is people leaving due to financial hardship. We can't afford to lose that experience, we must do everything to retain it," he said. At the Bradan 2000 annual conference in Galway last week, the Minister told more than 250 fish farmers he was confident of the future of the industry. an 2000 annual conference in Galway last week. So did the Norwegian financier who said that fish farming offered a better investment opportunity than ecommerce in the long term.

Mr Kolbjorn Giskeodegard, vice-president and analyst in the fisheries division at the Christiania Bank in Alesund, Norway, told the conference if he had to choose between investing in fish farming and ecommerce over the next 20 years, he would opt for the former. Salmon was one of the few global high-volume, high-value farmed species, he said; and the BSE crisis might be a tragedy for cattle farmers, but it represented a positive opportunity for fish farmers. Norway's annual salmon production is 0.5 million tonnes and growing, at a time when aquaculture has been identified as the world's fastest-growing sector of the global food economy. The Christiania Bank is the world's largest fishery bank and has backed the construction costs of several of Ireland's supertrawlers over the past decade.

The Government's allocation of £25 million towards aquaculture under the National Development Plan was a mark of its commitment to and faith in the industry, Mr Byrne said - a sentiment reiterated by his senior minister, Mr Fahey, who arrived to close the Galway gathering. The Circa consultants' report, which emphasised the need for growth if the industry is to compete internationally, highlighted a "window of opportunity", Mr Byrne said.

Mr Maurice Mullen, principal officer at the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, said the industry's track record was excellent and the Government was confident it could develop in a sustainable manner, using the best environmental practice. He urged the industry to take advantage of the funding sooner rather than later, as it was hoped a call would be issued shortly for proposals and the first projects would be approved by next April. It was critical that environmental impact statements involved full consultation, he added.

Mr Conor Maguire SC, chairman of the Aquaculture Licences Appeals Board, said it had received 88 appeals last year. The board was heartened by the attitude of the industry and the Department towards new monitoring protocols for fish farms, and it looked forward to greater integration of the principles of coastal zone management, he said.

A separate £4 million package was also moved last week by the Minister for the Marine to assist commercial fishermen hit by the fuel price crisis. Bord Iascaigh Mhara is hosting the first in a series of meetings to explain the assistance this week. More details and application forms are available on its website at www.bim.ie