Mr. Richard Cronin:

At the moment, we have a national marine planning framework, which is the overarching policy framework for the stewardship and sustainable use of the marine space. The policy statement will have to particulate that and a key feature will have to be the description of its relationship to that primary policy statement. It will contain that information but also specific priorities around marine protection.

As to who will draft it, we have commenced some work on this in the last month in my team. We have sat down and taken out a blank sheet of paper and asked what we want to achieve with this and how we would describe it, so we can get some preliminary work done on it. We think we can develop a policy statement on a non-statutory basis before the legislation is enacted so there is no delay in the commencement of legislation. We will be engaging with all the relevant policy Departments related to the sea in the coming months, and they have been notified of that as well. I understand that we intend to lay the policy statement before both Houses, and that is the intention at this stage. It will then give the expert group a framework within which to operate.

We are acutely aware of the need to ensure that, first, there is participation in this process and that it is not a top-down process, so the consultations have been explicit and that is what best practice is. The second thing we are conscious of is that the State and the people of Ireland have a growing and increased need to get benefits from the sea, and we need to make sure that those benefits can proceed at the same time as providing biodiversity protection. We are blessed in Ireland with an abundance of space and we have enough space to accommodate everything, but we need to make sure that when prioritising the designation of space, we are aware of the other needs for space as well, and avoid as much conflict as possible.

Will I keep going through the other issues?