Ms Attracta U? Bhroin:

It would certainly go a long way but I would hark back to why do we need MPAs in the first place. What is the fundamental legal obligation? If this goes to the European Court of Justice, the court will look at the adequacy of what Ireland has done and the extent to which it is or is not credibly contributing to good environmental status, which is the fundamental objective. If there is an issue of interpretation, that is the purpose of approach the court will take. We need to underpin our targets with a rationale throughout the Bill in terms of its decision making, its architecture and the targets that meaningfully contribute to that and deliver an ecologically coherent representative network of MPAs. It must not be a case of designating 45% of one area "over there" because it does not get in the way of what we want to do "over here".