Mr. Richard Cronin:

I thank the Chairman again. Before I answer that question there is one thing that is very important for us all to consider when we think about the marine space and that is its three-dimensional nature. When we consider how we apply land-based approaches versus how we manage the sea, there is a three-dimensional aspect. It was a part of Deputy Ó Broin’s earlier question that I failed to answer around the 30% and how the three-dimensional aspect of it is brought into play.

Turning more specifically to the Chairman’s question, in my opening comments I made reference to the fact that we already have a list of the things we believe are important to protect. We have a list of species and habitats that have been already agreed on by the scientists to be both threatened and declining, which I can provide to the committee after the meeting. We have a good indication already of where we think these are. We would be, of course, happy to have further information on this but we believe we already have a good start on that.

Another point I raised was to look at things like how the ocean acts as a natural carbon store, with the natural carbon cycle and how carbon is stored either in the coastline, in things like seagrass and kelp forests, or how it is stored in sediments. We have very good information also about where those habitats exist. Yes, it is a vast and daunting area. We are in the top six European Union marine or maritime nations based on our maritime footprint but we also benefit not only from our expertise but from the expertise of all of those scientists across the European Union and the north-east Atlantic. There is much information available to us and we have a very strong underpinning of what we need to protect already. These are on what I would call the biodiversity side.

One of the key findings of the expert advisory report is that there is the potential for other types of marine protected areas as well that have a strong focus on our culture and on either the historical or heritage aspects of our marine environment. I am speaking here predominantly, however, about the natural marine environment and the natural components of our marine space.