Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

This is important legislation and I am delighted to see it come forward. We have two more sessions after this on next Tuesday and Thursday when we will meet with fishers and look at community engagement. We will also bring in some industry representatives and will then meet the Irish Environmental Network and the environmental NGOs. This has been well overdue. As Mr. Cronin mentioned, we had a small number of our marine areas protected - approximately 2% or 3% - under special areas of conservation, SACs, and special protection areas, SPAs. This legislation is necessary because we depend on that sea area. Most of our energy in the future will come from out there. It will come under pressure from that. Our fishers are under considerable pressure as it is. Coastal communities that depend on the tourism and recreation aspect as well and that is not to mention the climate function of a functioning marine ecosystem. It is critically important. Many people ignore the area much of the time, because it is just out there. It is just the sea. We are not aware of the detail and it is far away. The damage done to our marine environment is probably not as obvious as the terrestrial damage that has been done, because that is visible and we see it every day.