Mr. Robert McCabe:

I greatly appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee and share with it and the members some reflections from the seafood ORE working group on the important topic on the agenda today. The seafood ORE working group was established in May 2022. I have been the independent chair since that time. The current membership of the working group comprises 17 organisations representing the seafood sector, four organisations representing the ORE sector, three Government Departments and eight State agencies. It important to understand that this goes beyond fishing. It includes aquaculture and all seafood activity within Ireland. The role of the working group is to facilitate engagement on matters arising from the interaction of the Irish seafood and ORE industries, to promote and share best practice, and to encourage liaison with other sectors in the marine environment.

All of our work is in the context of and grounded in the national marine planning framework. Our work to date has included engagement. It is important for the members to understand that engagement is at the heart of everything we do. The importance of direct engagement between our members from the seafood ORE working group and officials from Government and State agencies simply cannot be overstated. It is what it is all about. Continuing active engagement at in-person meetings is an important part of establishing trusted relationships between various stakeholders. The consistent attendance and engagement of members indicates a commitment from the membership to the work of the group. The working group has published agreed guidance on seafood and ORE sector engagement in Ireland, dispute resolution and ORE support work by fishing vessels. I have shortened the catchy title that Mr. Moran used. Copies of these documents have been circulated to members of the committee in the briefing information.

We have an active subgroup arrangement within the working group. Those subgroups are established when they are required to progress particular issues. There are presently two active subgroups. One is looking at the terms of reference of our group because it is three years in now. At the end of this year or the start of next year, we should be looking at what the future of that group should look like.

We also have an active subgroup on coexistence and related issues, which will be among the topics that will arise today. A previous subgroup focused on guidance on engagement. Our first guidance document on how people involved in these sectors should engage with each other was a particularly important piece of work early in the group's existence. We also had a subgroup on dispute resolution because it was recognised early on that a means of resolving disputes, short of going to court, was absolutely required. That mechanism is up and running at the moment, although we have a second phase to come. Other subgroups included those dealing with the commercial use of fishing vessels; the impacts of surveys on fish and fisheries; the extent of fishing activity and the data related to it; and data issues in general. All of these subgroups produced reports within the committee.

We also take presentations on topics of interest. We have been favoured with really good presentations, both from our own members, so that we can better understand each other, and from bodies such as An Bord Pleanála, now An Coimisiún Pleanála; MARA; and UK interests involved in the same work we are doing. These presentations have really served to inform us about the two sectors.

There is also outreach activity. We are conscious that while we have a really strong membership, there are always people beyond that membership who might not be aware of what we do. We have the minutes of our meetings publicly available on the Department's website. We attend relevant conferences and meetings outside of our group. In an effort to ensure we are well engaged with the fishing sector, we sent by post all of the guidance documents and our annual report to all of the fishermen on the register. We are seeking to make sure we reach out as best we can to everybody involved.

I will briefly summarise the current issues before us. We are awaiting policy guidance on big-picture issues around socioeconomic and cumulative impacts of ORE developments. That follows on from a bilateral process in which both the ORE and the seafood sectors engaged with the two relevant Departments, namely, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Department of Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment. That process produced papers and we are now awaiting a response to that. We hope to have that very quickly because it will unlock the next phase of our work, which is completing the coexistence and related issues guidance. Part of that will involve a framework agreement on how survey activity can take place. It is critical that there is certainty regarding the ability of the ORE sector to undertake the surveys it needs for the roll-out of the phase 1 projects, for DMAP preparation by Departments and for future DMAPs. The establishment of key baseline data is particularly important to us. Spatial data for inshore fishing is important, as is clarity on the DMAP roll-out process. Issues that are not directly on our committee agenda, like marine protected areas, will have an impact on the spatial squeeze at sea in the maritime area and are undoubtedly of interest to us if not directly within our remit.