Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have read the document and would like to make one comment and to pose a question. Following on what Deputy Harrington has been saying, it appears to me from discussions I have had with the Marine Institute and the Department that the Commission is making an example of Ireland and making us jump through all the hoops and dot all the i's and cross all the t's. Research I have done indicates the regime is completely different in every other European country. The explanation for this seems to be that we took a court case and they did not. That seems to be the only reason we have been forced to go down this road and through this whole procedure. One reason I am disappointed is because this is a torturously long process, but I understand the data sets must be built up and the research must be done.

The last paragraph of the presentation mentions the issue that has arisen between sea-fishing and the Natura sites. I understand this has been an issue for well over a year at this stage, but it appears we have not got any closer to a resolution. Getting a decision requires liaison between the different Departments and the Commission but the process of getting a decision at that level is very slow. This is holding up the final stages of decisions for a number of bays on getting their conservation objectives established. Is this issue anywhere near a resolution? Will it happen anytime soon and will that decision free up the system to allow decisions be made and the process move forward?