Small Scale Coastal Fisheries Scheme

This scheme is designed to be a ‘one stop shop’ for Small Scale Coastal Fishers, allowing both onshore and onboard investments by Small scale coastal fishing (SSCF*) vessel owners, with the following objectives:

• Selective Fishing: Investment in equipment to Improve size or species selectivity of fishing gear to avoid and reduce unwanted catches in accordance with Article 15 of Regulation (EU) 1380/2013.
• Energy Efficiency: Investments in equipment aimed at reducing the emission of pollutants or greenhouse gases and increasing the energy efficiency of fishing vessels, and onshore operations. Energy efficiency audits.
• Hygiene, Health, and Safety: Investments on board that improve hygiene, health, safety and working conditions provided and that exceed legislative requirements.
• Quality: Innovative investments that improve the quality of fishery products or add value to fishery products, by allowing fishermen to carry out the processing of these catches.
• Traceability: The costs of purchase and installation on board of the components, including computer hardware and software, which are necessary to ensure the traceability of fishery products.

* SSCF: Owners of vessels <12.00m overall length (LOA) and which do not fish towed gears.

Who is Eligible

Owners of SSCF fishing vessels:

• which must be registered on the Irish Fleet Register at the time of grant application, and;
• who must have been actively fishing in the two calendar years preceding the year of submission of the application:
  • For vessels less than 10m length overall (LOA) this will be validated by ensuring sales notes to the value of at least €1,000 have been registered with the SFPA in each of the two preceding calendar years.
  • For vessels of 10m LOA or greater, this will be validated by ensuring log books registered with the SFPA show at least 60 days at sea in each of the two preceding calendar years.

Amounts Granted

The support rate under this scheme is 80%.

SSCF Scheme Clarification Note

Please note, some items within the SSCF scheme may require appropriate permissions, such as but not limited to sheds/bait/equipment stores. For example any shed or store that has a footprint of over 25m², has a height greater than 3m and is located at least 2m from any boundary will require planning permission. BIM will require a copy of the planning permission to be uploaded along with your application to be able to progress with your application.

In addition to this, if the item is to be placed on a site that is not in the applicant’s name, BIM will require evidence that the applicant has the appropriate permission to do so. Evidence, such as a copy of a long-term lease of at least 5 years duration must be uploaded with your application.