Mr. Richard Cronin:

I thank the Deputy for those questions. I will see if I captured all of them here. I have made some notes. I will try to take them from the top, and if I miss any of them, I ask the Deputy to highlight it to me and I will try to pick them up again. If there is anything on which I cannot be completely specific with the Deputy, I can pick it up again in a written submission, if necessary.

The Deputy's first question was on the timing. Our timeframe for the general scheme is the third quarter of 2022. We have identified and have the additional resources on my team to start working on this at the start of the year. We are talking to our legal team in the Department about setting up the project plan for that, but we have done considerable thinking about this, as the Deputy can well understand, and we have a clear idea of what we need. We can get a general scheme together and published by quarter 3 of 2022.

We foresee a significant involvement needed from those not inside in the Department, both from the stakeholders who have shown a keen interest in being involved and other Departments that have a role in marine governance. However, we can do that. Everybody is well aware of where we are at this time.

We can have legislation in place in 2023. We would not be starting from a blank sheet. There are good models and examples of best practice both in our north Atlantic and European regions and further afield in countries with a similar profile to us and a similar marine governance arrangement. We have been studying the background of this. We had colleagues on the expert advisory group from Marine Scotland and from the Northern Ireland Administration who supported us in the drafting of that report. We can make significant progress on that. That is the timing issue.

The other question was whether there was a potential for time lag. The subject of much conversation has been whether the time lag is real. The first question is whether there is a real time lag and the second is whether there is a spatial overlap. While we are working on the MPA legislation, other work will also be taking place on designations under the birds and habitats directives. I do not have information about when those designations are likely to occur, but there is a clear sense of urgency about the completion of those designations.

In terms of the current locations and potential identified locations for the offshore renewables sector and where large offshore marine protected areas are likely to occur, the spatial overlap does not appear to be material, from my study of the situation. If one was 100 km off the west coast of Ireland and 1 km down on a reef system, there would be no opportunity for wind farms to have an effect there. The key point is whether there is a time lag and a spatial overlap-----