Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I will take my round of questions now. I attended the Wind Energy Ireland conference where 17 July was announced as the date MARA was to be established. There was a palpable sense in that room of progress being made in harnessing our offshore potential. The year before at that conference they spoke about advances because we had brought in the Marine Area Planning Act. The offshore renewable electricity support scheme, ORESS, had been successful. It had come in at a price per MWh that surprised some people. It was slightly lower than people thought it would be, which was good for us. There was also the establishment of MARA. However, there is a lot more to our ocean area than offshore renewable energy. That is obviously the thing we focus on at the moment because of the high cost of energy as a result of the war in Ukraine. There is also a lot of talk about the requirement for energy self-sufficiency and of climate action. There are a lot of other incomes derived from the sea area. There are a lot of careers made at sea and businesses depending on the sea. Coastal communities rely on the sea for both recreation and tourism. There are also our fishermen. I always think it important to point out that what we are doing in the offshore is not just about the offshore renewable industry. It is a comprehensive, arms around our sea approach, to say we are aware of conflicting and complementary activities out there.

Does MARA have any engagement role with the fishing and coastal communities? There is also the community fund that will accrue from offshore renewable development. Does MARA have any role in those? If it does not, that is fine. I am just trying to build up my body of knowledge. As Deputy Duffy has said, this is a new and exciting time for us. We have a planning Act for the sea and an agency overseeing regulation of that.