Government Aid For Financial Burden: The Role Of Fisheries Schemes In Price Stability
The Parliamentary Secretary for Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Animal Rights Alicia Bugeja Said addressed a conference entitled ‘Investing in Fishermen’ where she spoke about the Government’s investment in the last two years with various schemes and financial aid to fishermen.
She explained how the Government, even during a pandemic, saw how to directly help the fishermen in order to ease their burdens and keep local fish prices stable, particularly with the fuel scheme, as well as with the wooden boat restoration scheme.
“The Government has invested around €1.8 Million in the last two years with financial aid to Maltese and Gozitan fishermen. We know the difficulties that fishermen face on a daily basis, and that’s why we increased our efforts to continue to support them,” said Bugeja Said.
The Parliamentary Secretary responsible for fisheries reiterated the Government’s commitment to continue to encourage local fishermen with several other measures that will be announced in the coming weeks, including the scheme for financial aid aimed at young fishermen, Young Fishers’ Scheme.
“We believe that there is still work to be done in order to continue to support the fishermen. Unfortunately, despite all this help, we are seeing on the media several candidates who, in order to gain a political advantage, are using fishermen by alleging that the Government has abandoned the fishermen and does not support them. These figures that we are presenting today show a totally different story,” concluded Alicia Bugeja Said.
The director for Fisheries Gilbert Balzan spoke about the importance of launching such schemes in order to facilitate the operation of local fishermen. The schemes offered by the Department of Fisheries over the years have saved fishermen enormous costs so that they can maintain sustainable spending and therefore stable fish prices. All this leads to finally being beneficial for citizens who enjoy reasonable prices for local fresh fish.
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