Mr. Richard Cronin:

It is not yet clear that such acoustic monitoring would be carried out from naval vessels. Some of our acoustic monitoring is done from fixed positions, with a type of sentinel outpost. In other cases, the monitoring concerns an activity we know is going to take place in a certain location. We know the frequency and intensity of the noise energy to be introduced, so there is no need to monitor because we already know what sort of impact it is going to have. That activity is already regulated. Historically for us, this involved oil and gas exploration activities, but we are now moving into a phase where there will be investigations and development of offshore renewable energy sources.

The Deputy also mentioned carbon-rich habitats. This is one of the key things we are trying to achieve in this proposed legislation. We are trying to create an identification of things like that to protect, and this is where we think the ocean environment policy statement gives us the flexibility to list these priority issues. In our programme of measures under the marine strategy directive, which we reported to Brussels in December 2022, we identified the need to protect those carbon-rich habitats. Just as late as yesterday afternoon, we had a nature-based solutions workshop on coastal carbon habitats involving representatives from across several Departments, local authorities and research institutes.

We know about it and it is our sights to do something about it.