Ireland

Unusually for Ireland, the FLAG area has a relatively strong urban structure with 22 settlements falling into the aggregate urban area category of over 1,500 inhabitants (14 of which are at close proximity to the coast).

The South FLAG area covers the coast of County Cork including seven West Cork Islands, from the Kerry–Cork boundary West of Lauragh, in Kerry to the river at Youghal. The fleet in the area is distributed across many small harbours and piers all along the coast.

Kerry is one of the most sparsely populated counties in Ireland with the most rural and peripheral areas in the county experiencing declining populations over the last 20 years. This is especially true of the coastal regions.

Donegal is a large county with a lengthy coastline featuring a number of long inlets and bays. The region is sparsely populated and outside of Letterkenny, its only large urban centre, there is a high dependence on small-scale agriculture and fisheries enterprises.

The FLAG North-West area is found along the coasts of counties Mayo, Sligo and Leitrim and comprises the 69 local electoral areas extending 10km from the coastline. Fishing and tourism are prominent within the coastal towns. There are 219 licenced registered fishing vessels in the area and 60% of these are day boats under eight metres in length.

The North East FLAG area covers the coast of counties Fingal, Meath and Louth. This area is home to almost 8% of the national fleet, the most important Razor Clam (Ensis siliqua) and Cockle (Cerastoderma edule) fisheries in Ireland, and the southern section of the of North Irish Sea Nephrop Ground. Aquaculture in this region is focused around Carlingford Lough and produces oysters and mussels.

The first cooperation initiatives in Ireland are expected to emerge in 2017 following a national call for cooperation projects, which the Managing Authority (MA) plans to launch mid-2017. Although cooperation was not a strong element of the 2007-2013 Axis 4 programme in Ireland, the MA hopes that the call in the current programming period will result in at least one cooperation project per FLAG.

The experience developed by FARNET under Axis 4 of the EFF (2007-2013) is still highly valuable for the current programming period, especially for new FLAGs.

This page leads to all the project examples published during the 2007-2013 programming period.