The State's second national fisheries training school has been opened in the south-western port of Castletownbere, Co Cork, by the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, Dr Woods. The new £500,000 regional fisheries centre will be run by Bord Iascaigh Mhara, and will accommodate 150 trainees annually. The building on the site of the port's old ice plant is fitted with its own simulators - including a 13-metre wide bridge deck overlooking the quayside for electronic navigation exercises.
The centre's establishment comes after many years of lobbying by fishing industry representatives in the southern region. The existing training centre in Greencastle, Co Donegal has produced highly successful fishing skippers and crew - but its location on the Inishowen peninsula has long been seen as a disadvantage for trainees, and skippers and crew seeking to enrol in specialised courses from the south-west and southern ports.
The centre will be managed by Capt Bill Kavanagh, who formerly worked in the Greencastle school; additional staff, including an administrative assistant and instructors in nautical and engineering skills, are being appointed to assist him.
As a west to north-west gale lashed Castletownbere yesterday, Dr Woods congratulated those involved in constructing the new centre and said it would provide intensive courses to the highest standards in seafaring, safety and survival, navigation, wheelhouse electronics, fish farm husbandry, fish handling, hygiene and quality control.
"Provision of essential safety training, in particular, can reduce the rate of accidents and tragic loss of life at sea," the Minister said.
Dr Woods also said he was making a consultancy report on Castletownbere's infrastructural needs available to all relevant interests with a view to developing a cost-efficient strategy for developing the harbour.
The report recommends an integrated approach, involving seafood, tourism, business and community interests, including the provision of a marina.
The chairman of BIM, Mr Pat Ridge, made a special pitch for increased EU and State investment in the fishing industry. For the price of five miles of new road annually - about £20 million, at £4 million for every mile, he said at yesterday's opening, the State could oversee a 20 per cent increase in employment in the marine sector in the most peripheral regions over the next seven years. Mr Ridge was referring to the main recommendation of a recent BIM plan for the seafood industry.
Mr Donal O'Driscoll, chairman of the Irish South and West Fishermen's Organisation, based in Castletownbere, gave the initiative a warm welcome. Combined with gradual improvements in the fleet, in harbours and shore facilities, better fishing conditions and a major revision of the "unjust" Common Fisheries Policy, the centre would ensure that coastal communities could look to the future with confidence, he said.
Work on the establishment of a new national maritime college in Cork harbour is also continuing, and Dr Woods has indicated he favours a specialist training facility for ratings near his own constituency on the east coast.
The proposed new maritime college, which became an election pledge in Cork in 1997, would service the needs of the merchant marine and Naval Service, if built.
An expert group has been established by the Minister to examine the costings and timing of the college, which he has described as a "unique collaborative venture". It will be supported by Cork Institute of Technology and the Naval Service, and the plan is to accommodate 120 students annually - more than double the current capacity.
The Cork institute currently trains seafarers at its nautical studies department, but demand for qualified personnel has been exceeding supply.
