Mr. Peter Coyle:

An IDA for the sea is an attractive proposition on the face of it, but setting up public agencies is time-consuming and expensive. One has to go through extensive turf wars that go on forever and a good outcome cannot be guaranteed. The agencies we have, IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, are superb. It is just a matter of handing them the vision and the demand to do big things and be imaginative in this area. By the way, a very important agency that is about to be created in the first quarter of 2023, preferably in January 2023, is the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, in Wexford. Its smooth and effective functioning is going to be very important.

In terms of capacity, historically there were one and a half men and women, a dog and a blunt pencil assigned to this area. That has changed radically in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications in recent times. It does not have enough people - we never have enough people in these areas - but I am satisfied that in that Department and in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which also plays a key role in this area, there are probably adequate numbers of people involved.

There is a concern across the industry that An Bord Pleanála, which is going to be the planning authority for a significant portion of the European Union's waters, and the planning is going to be very complex, has the number of people and the expertise available to it into the future. There is real concern there. We want to ensure that MARA gets up and running with extensive resources from the outset. There was a good sign recently when I heard that the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage apparently has rented a new block which is being built as part of a larger development on the waterfront in Wexford. That is a good sign the Department is taking this seriously and putting resources into it. MARA must be resourced. Those are the two key issues - make sure MARA gets up and running quickly and that it is well resourced and make sure An Bord Pleanála is well resourced. Of course, there are people in the background we have to think about as well, such as the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which plays a key role in this area.

On the Government task force, there was an effort in this area to get Departments to pull and work together in the past. It did not really work. However, the involvement of the Department of the Taoiseach in ensuring the legislation was put together quickly seems to have carried on. I have heard about the cross-government task force and I am fully in favour of it. It is important that people in the silos are pulled together and talk together. We should give it a chance and see what happens.