Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For a body to be designated to bring forward a DMAP, it could be a Minister with responsibility for energy regulation, the NPWS if it relates to an ecological cycle or an area in which it has expertise, or the EPA. That is a snapshot of what type of body it may be.

I see the DMAP as a sub-national plan. It is like the terrestrial planning system for a county. There is the county development plan and underneath that, breathing life into the shared vision of the county development plan, is the local area plan. That may be around a town, an area or a community that tries to chart the development with key public participation of that community into the future that the members would vote on, where particular micro-pointed development would happen. That is on a more micro level and it is the same with the DMAPs. They breathe life again into the national planning framework. A DMAP is a more micro document that would be brought forward by an authority, as referenced, to try to give a more specific plan for that designated area. I refer to page 197 of the NMPF. I keep referring back to that document because it is so good. It states:

A DMAP will be a management plan for a specific area of our marine waters and can be used to develop multi-activity area plans; to promote use of specific activities; and/or for the purposes of the sustainable use and protection of particular marine environments.