Mr. Tom Woolley:

It is true to say there have been consultations throughout the process. One was on our baseline report and that informed and provided the information for the draft NMPF. We then publicly consulted on the draft NMPF and that has resulted in the version before members. In several responses, people referred to the absence of environmental information they saw in the baseline report. We have fully addressed that in the draft by incorporating a quite substantial new environmental section. Between the draft and the version members have now, we have substantially improved our approach to environmental policy. We worked closely with our marine environment colleagues in the Department to ensure we have an MSFD-led approach, focusing on how the NMPF can ensure the good environmental status targets that have been established under the marine statutory framework directive, MSFD, steer the environment policy that sits in the plan.

To do that, we have had to look at some hefty technical material to ensure it is carried over appropriately. We do not want to over-regulate by saying things that are already in place and including measures that are already under way. We looked quite closely at the marine statutory framework directive Article 17 update Ireland's marine strategy part 1 report published last June. In terms of timing, this plan has had to react in quite an agile way to many things that have been happening, this latest on the MSFD being one. The level of detail can be seen, as can also how we have been able to integrate with the MSFD process, which has been quite a substantial change between the draft and the current version. We hope that alignment will both update significantly the information we are able to provide for people and ensure it is aligned to initiatives already under way in the marine environment side. Also, we hope that by doing that, the role of the NMPF in the marine environment is clear. As a result of the process of updating the marine environment side of things, we have looked to bodies such as the EPA to ensure we are pulling in evidence where we can. The Marine Institute has also helped us to do that and spot things that perhaps we ought to bring in and so on.

I hope the marine environment side is based on the best available information and we are providing it in the plan. As with other areas, it is a continually evolving field. We will have to keep an eye on it and ensure that continues to be the case in future iterations.