Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)

I want to be very open with the committee. I will look at the DMAPs piece but that is not just related to offshore renewable energy, ORE. DMAPs can be used for anything. I take the Senator's point but I have not given up on the draft legislation. I am trying to find a way to advance it more quickly. I will look at the Wildlife Act, which we discussed during the previous Administration, in terms of what we might be able to do there. The public participation piece is key and that is why I floated this idea with the environmental network when I met it last week. I wanted to get people's views on this. All of us want to advance the MPAs further, past 10%. The issue is identifying the best way to do it. Those three options are there and it is for us to figure out the best way forward. Again, for the record, DMAPs are not just related to ORE. They can relate to any element of planning that we are doing. We are getting a lot of data as part of the national DMAP. It might be an option but I can assure the Senator that I have not settled on that.