Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Department would not find an objection from most committee members to the idea of priorities because the Department cannot do all of this work at the same time. In areas where there are MACs or other potential significant economic marine activities, there are two values of clear priorities. First, it avoids accidental or intentional additional marine biodiversity degradation as a result of infrastructural developments. It also provides greater clarity for applicants, for example, for offshore wind. Many of us made the point, when we dealt with the planning legislation for the marine, is public or private sector interests that want to deliver large volumes of offshore wind will also benefit from the certainty that the MPAs will provide, subject to them being done right, and the likelihood of legal challenge and delay will be reduced. That is a greater level of certainty about who can do what, where and under what conditions. I cannot speak for other committee members but if the Department is saying to us that the prioritisations, for example, legacy wind farm projects on the east coast, should be prioritised for all the right reasons, and a number of other ones, that would be a sensible approach.