Harbours and Piers Seanad Éireann — 2026-03-24 ============================================================ Timmy Dooley (FF), Clare At the outset, with others, I join in offering condolences to the McNulty family. I offer my condolences to Geraldine, Joanna and the rest of the family. Of course, we will meet them in due course. I suggest that the Senators contact my office and I will happily engage with them. I thank Senators O'Donovan and Duffy for raising this issue today. Our Department owns, operates and maintains six designated State-owned fishery harbour centres, located at Castletownbere, Dingle, Dunmore East, Howth, Killybegs and Ros an Mhíl under statute. It also has responsibility for Cape Clear, Cleggan and some piers, lights and beacons. In addition, our Department has responsibility for the upkeep and maintenance of the north harbour at Cape Clear, as well as the maintenance of a small number of specific piers, lights and beacons throughout Ireland in accordance with the Marine Works (Ireland) Act 1902, and piers, lights and beacons constructed under the auspices of the Congested Districts Board. Responsibility for the development and maintenance of any piers, harbours and slipways that lie outside the boundary of the fishery harbour centres that are not under the remit of our Department rests with each local authority in the first instance. However, our Department, as part of its annual fishery harbour and coastal infrastructure development programme, does provide limited - I emphasise that it is limited - discretionary funding to coastal local authorities for the implementation of small-scale projects focused on the development and repair of piers, harbours and slipways under their ownership. The proposed projects must support the fishing industry, aquaculture and marine leisure activities. Accordingly, on 16 February, I announced €4.3 million in funding under the local authority marine infrastructure scheme for 2026. Under that scheme, our Department will co-fund up to 75% of the eligible project costs, up to a maximum of €187,500 reimbursement, where eligible, per project, with the local authority providing the balance. Local authorities were encouraged to assess the nature of the capital works on their coastal-marine infrastructure that may require repair, modernisation, enhancement or upgrading, identifying those projects that could be considered eligible for funding in 2026. The deadline for local authorities to submit project proposals for funding under this scheme was 9 March. I am pleased to inform the Senators of the large volume of project proposals submitted to our Department within the timeline. In fact, applications were submitted by every coastal local authority. The is really encouraging and says to me that the engineers are engaging with the process. Applications are evaluated, taking into account the terms and conditions of the scheme, the priority attached to each project by the relevant local authority, available funding and the need to ensure a broad geographical spread of projects. The Department is currently processing these applications. I expect that this process shall be completed in the coming weeks, following which I will make a decision concerning the allocation of funding for eligible project proposals. Once the projects are approved for funding, our Department will engage with representatives from the respective local authorities. I can, however, share details of funding provided in recent years to local authorities by our Department. It is worth noting that any costs incurred in relation to survey work and permit applications are not considered capital expenditure and, therefore, are not eligible for reimbursement by our Department. It is a matter for the local authorities to progress preparatory studies, permitting and design reports for each project in advance of applying to our Department for supporting capital works. Between the years 2020 and 2025, our Department reimbursed total funding of almost €60 million under both the local authority marine infrastructure scheme and the Brexit adjustment local authority marine infrastructure, BALAMI, scheme. This figure is the total drawdown from the local authorities following completion of their projects. The figure may differ from the allocation granted by the Department each year. It should be noted that it is a matter for each local authority to manage the progress of each project and submit claims to the Department for reimbursement. For context, the BALAMI scheme was one of the recommendations of the seafood sector task force, which the then Minister, Deputy McConalogue, established following Brexit. It provided funding to local authorities to revitalise Ireland's public marine infrastructure to offset the impact of the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. The main condition for eligible projects is that the costs incurred must be directly linked to countering the adverse effects of the UK's withdrawal on the local fishing community. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-03-24/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:46+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-03-24