Mr. Niall Goodwin:

I support what has been said on that. That sort of robust and evidence-based data is really important so we can get those baseline data. The monitoring comes back largely - and we say this a lot - to the resourcing point that often comes up when we have these discussions. We need enough people in the key State entities that are there and able to deliver what we need to do on this to make sure it is as accurate as possible. That is in the interests of all of us sitting on this side of the room. What we are talking about here is MARA as well as it gets set up. It needs to be properly resourced. We are talking about An Bord Pleanála and the National Parks and Wildlife Service. We really need to make sure that these entities are properly resourced in order that they can properly manage and monitor the tasks that will be on their desks in the coming decade, as we look to roll out more and more offshore renewable energy and help us to meet our climate targets as were set out in the climate action plan. That is ultimately our goal here. There are the parallel objectives of fighting climate change, meeting our carbon budgets and tackling the biodiversity crisis. They go hand in hand. I think we all agree on that. We support in particular the Government's continuation of the ObSERVE programme in developing our scientific understanding of marine mammals and seabirds that occupy our marine areas. We would support the commissioning of further baseline surveys to inform the identification process for new MPAs. This requires Government funding and resourcing to ensure we do it properly. That is just a short point but I wanted just to note our support for that.