Dr. Tim O'Higgins:

It is something that I have looked at quite carefully. The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the water framework directive, which applies to coastal waters, and for dumping at sea. The Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority has competence for managing Irish fishing. Inland Fisheries Ireland manages coastal fisheries. We in the Department have responsibility for the marine strategy framework directive. Our colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are responsible for marine spatial planning. There are also the authorities for terrestrial planning and MARA. There are a lot of moving parts. It is a dynamic situation. Not everything has settled yet. In designing this legislation, we have tried to ensure that all of those parts fit together and to make it broad enough that they will still gel as things change.