Mr. P?draic Fogarty:

What constitutes appropriate in one way has already been decided. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature is the scientific authority for nature conservation in Ireland. It has already said that an MPA should not have industrial activities and infrastructure development. It states that "mining, industrial fishing, oil and gas extraction are not compatible with marine protected areas." It also includes the IUCN definition of industrial fishing. A lot of work has already been around what should and should not be taking place within an MPA. Following on from that, in the habitats directive they use the language of appropriate assessment but they also have a lot of detail on that. Under head 11, for example, it states that "the authority shall satisfy itself that the proposed activity would, on the best available scientific information [which is good] comply with the conservation objectives of the MPA." The wording of the habitats directive is that there will be a significant effect on the conservation objectives. We know what that means, from more than 20 years of the habitats directive. To comply with the conservation objectives this now introduces an area of uncertainty over what that would mean.