Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Professor Crowe for his presentation and the work he has done to get us this far. It is hugely important legislation because our seas are such a rich resource for us all. We have a number of these public meetings and then we will make our report. He mentioned in his opening statement the importance of our putting in place legislation, a framework and a process that can evolve. We are dealing with an organic situation.

I wish to talk about the proposal in the legislation to establish an expert group. I was hoping Professor Crowe might be able to share with the committee his views as to how such an expert group should be constituted, what its remit, size and scope should be and the types of resources it will require. Can he can refer us to international examples or best practice that has been established and give us his views as to how that should operate?