754. Deputy Roderic O'Gorman asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the supports and funding streams available for organisations involved in marine protection and conservation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45816/26]

The €258 million seafood development programme forms Ireland’s principal source of funding for the seafood sector in the coming years. This programme is funded under the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF), which is co-funded by the government of Ireland and the EU.

As part of this fund  bodies such as the Marine institute offers some particular funding opportunities.

Marine Biodiversity Scheme

The Scheme may support actions that contribute to the protection and restoration of marine biodiversity and ecosystems and the achievement of Good Environmental Status.

Data collection national programme

This Scheme administers funding provided for implementation of the national work plans referred to in  The Data Collection Framework Regulation requires that Member States collect primary biological, technical, environmental and socioeconomic data within the framework of a multi-annual national programme.  This National Programme is required to include:

Multi-annual sampling programmes:

A scheme for at-sea monitoring of commercial and recreational fisheries,

A scheme for research surveys-at-sea;

A scheme for management and use of the data for scientific analyses purposes.

The new programme also addresses the need for an increase in scientific capacity to address emerging end-user (stock assessment) needs and to improve advice on Management Strategy Evaluation, mixed fisheries analysis and ecosystem modelling. It also includes new data streams from self-sampling and by-catch sampling, vulnerable marine ecosystems and mixed fisheries analysis. The new programme will also address specific data and knowledge gaps for data poor stocks to respond to advisory demands and to service policy support for fisheries management.

Marine knowledge scheme

The Marine Knowledge Scheme aims to enable the collection, management, analysis, processing and use of marine data to improve the knowledge on the state of the marine environment and inform a sustainable blue economy.

An important goal is to contribute to the achievement of climate change objectives. The scheme will improve understanding of impacts of climate change on marine activities and on the environment.  It will improve coordination, processing, sharing and quality of marine data nationally and internationally.

The EMFAF legal framework includes the specific objective to strengthen sustainable sea and ocean management through the promotion of marine knowledge.  It will contribute to actions that aim to collect, manage, analyse, process and use data to improve the knowledge on the state of the marine environment.

The Marine Knowledge Scheme will fill critical knowledge gaps.  A better understanding of the spatial and temporal changes in ecosystem services, provides a baseline from which changes can be monitored.  These data and forecasting capabilities are also necessary to ensure sustainable development in a changing climate.  Availability of data that relate to Clean Oceans are important for informing the implementation of marine spatial planning.  This includes physical, biological and chemical pollution, for example approaches for monitoring and assessing marine pollution, alien species or litter including Micro-/nano- plastics and other materials.