Press release
McConalogue announces 62 grant awards by Fisheries Local Action Groups under the Department’s EMFF Programme
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Agriculture Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D., today announced the award of 62 grants worth €915,295 by the seven Fisheries Local Action Groups established under Ireland’s European Maritime and Fisheries Fund Programme . The grants are awarded to 62 mostly local coastal community groups and micro enterprises. The grants are co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Union.
Announcing the grant awards, Minister McConalogue said:
“The FLAG Scheme under my Department’s EMFF Seafood Development Programme has been a huge success. With the grant awards I am announcing today, the seven FLAGs have now successfully dispersed their full €12 million allocation under my Department’s EMFF Programme. The FLAG Scheme has been operating since just 2017, following a short pilot in the previous programme and has gone from strength to strength. This is testament not just to the demand for such local development funding in our coastal communities but very much to the hard work of the local volunteers, many drawn from our seafood and wider marine sectors, who make up the boards of each of our seven FLAGs”.
Minister McConalogue added:
“I believe that the FLAG initiative has significant additional potential in the years ahead to further drive start-ups and the development of seafood and marine businesses in our coastal communities and can be a key element of our strategy in mitigating the impacts of Brexit on our coastal communities”.
The FLAG scheme is now closed, having expended its full allocation and a process will be initiated as part of the preparation of the new Seafood Development Programme 2021-27 to appoint FLAGs for the next programme period. The new FLAGs will be operational in 2022.
Details of the FLAG scheme can be found here :
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 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:
| FLAG | Number projects | Total Investment | Grant Awards |
| West | 4 | €82,704 | €42,158 |
| North West | 16 | €568,752 | €272,959 |
| North | 10 | €618,558 | €306,347 |
| North East | 3 | €56,534 | €45,227 |
| South East | 4 | €49,265 | €38,236 |
| South West | 12 | €247,334 | €107,842 |
| South | 13 | €193,729 | €102,523 |
| TOTAL | 62 | €1,816,879 | €915,295 |
Details of the individual grant awards are set out below for each of the seven FLAGs.
ENDS