The Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D., today announced the award of further grants worth €1.2 million to 56 local community groups and micro enterprises by the seven Fisheries Local Action Groups established under Ireland’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme. The grants are co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union.

Announcing the grant awards, Minister McConalogue said: “I am delighted to announce today a further 56 coastal projects to benefit from EMFF funding through the seven Fisheries Local Action Groups established as part of my Department’s EMFF Programme supporting the development of our seafood sector and coastal communities. These latest grant awards mean a total of €2.7 million FLAG funding has been awarded this year alone to 155 coastal projects”. 

Minister McConalogue added: “Many of the projects benefitting from EMFF FLAG funding are non-commercial projects benefitting the whole community in their coastal area. Such projects can often secure up to 80% of the project cost, making a real difference to the viability of such projects. This is just one of the ways in which my Department’s EMFF Programme is making a real difference for our coastal communities”.

Details of the FLAG scheme and how to apply can be found at www.bim.ie/schemes/

Notes for the Editor

The EMFF Operational Programme was launched in January 2016.  The Programme provides €240m in funding to the seafood sector (fisheries, aquaculture and seafood processing) over the period 2014 to 2020. The Programme is co-funded by the Exchequer and the EU.

FLAG, Fisheries Local Area Action Group (2014 – 2020) is a coastal community development strategy with a fund of €12 million for 7 designated Irish coastal communities. The 7 FLAGs are South FLAG (Cork), Southwest (Kerry, Limerick), South East (Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow) West, (Galway, Clare), Northwest (Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim), North (Donegal), and North East (Dublin, Louth, Meath).

Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), the Seafood Development Agency, assists FLAGs to deliver this scheme through administering supports via grant-aid, training and on the ground facilitation, with dedicated regional FLAG coordinators in each region.

The grant awards were as follows:

Details of the individual grant awards are set out below for each of the 7 FLAGs.

FLAGS - Sept 2020 (pdf 488Kb)    

ENDS