Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

Likewise, I will do my best to make sure things move quickly while seeking to do our job well and give the Bill the scrutiny it needs.

By way of brief opening comment before I get into the amendments, this is a very important Bill. It is long overdue. It is needed. I have concerns about the protection of our fragile marine environment and whether this Bill will be sufficient in that regard. I have concerns that, as with all development and planning processes, our approach to date in this country has been too developer-led, especially in terms of the marine environment, and that this Bill does not go sufficiently far to ensure it is not developer-led. There was good correspondence from the Coastal Concern Alliance today which made the point that the best international practice is for countries to screen areas, pick sites for wind energy development and tender for those sites to be used, and that we have taken the opposite approach where it has been developer-led and developers have picked sites. I would strongly share the alliance's concerns on this.

I am very concerned as well that we do not have the marine protected areas planned and mapped out. We are meant to have 30% of our areas protected by 2030 and to date only 2% of them are. It would be useful to hear from the Minister of State, in particular, on all of our amendments, exactly what will happen in terms of marine protected areas, what progress has been made and when we will get those designations in place because that relates to many of the concerns I have about the Bill and the processes.

In relation to amendments Nos. 1 and 2, I refer specifically to the maritime spatial plans and when Part 2, Chapter 2 will come into operation. My amendments seek to ensure it will come into operation on the enactment of the Bill. The maritime spatial plans, the considerations which inform them, the requirements for them in relation to the review of the NMPF and the public participation requirements, and how they are approved by the Oireachtas, all are important. Given that the NMPF will be an input into the decision-making process in respect of a range of matters under the Bill, it is important that it is urgently reviewed and that the overall architecture and requirements of the marine spatial plans for our marine environment are addressed. It is critically important that these actions will not be delayed through these provisions not being commenced.

Amendment No. 3 seeks to ensure the review of the current NMPF is done under section 17(2) before it is used to inform a range of matters, such as the designated maritime area plans, DMAPs, the maritime area consents, MACs, and the decisions under the planning Act.

I apologise because I will be stepping out for a few minutes to move a Bill in the Dáil. I will be back straight after.