Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

That is great to hear. Even though it is a new Administration, the Minister did have responsibility for this in his previous role and the fact that it is the same Minister dealing with it now should certainly help to bring it to fruition. It is really important that there is no watering down and that it is stand-alone legislation. I take the Minister's point about going from 3% to 10% but the reality is that 10% of MPAs that we have in Ireland are essentially paper parks. There have been no additional protection measures implemented in them, even in the most recent one, Páirc Náisiúnta na Mara. That has been in place for over a year but no additional protection measures have been put in place in it. My understanding is that there is not even an indication on marine maps as to where the marine parks are. On navigation maps they are not identified. What we have seen, from an ecological perspective, is a lot of discussion about having these parks and celebrating that fact but they are not actually making any difference whatsoever in the marine environment. Indeed, last year I spoke to an international scientist, who has travelled the world doing surveys, about the park off Dingle. He told me that he had never come across a marine area that was as devoid of biodiversity as that new marine park. I would question the Minister as to why no additional measures have been put in place there at all. There is huge potential and while we may have 10% of marine protected areas, we have not protected them but have just named them as MPAs. It is really important that the new MPA legislation brings in really strong regulation, enforcement and new rules about what can happen in those particular areas.