Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

Unfortunately, or fortunately, whatever way we look at it, there is no change to the effort expended by the State. It is purely about taking a function, a group of people working on various projects under the guidance of one Department, and effectively, for the want of a better word, taking that block and bringing it over to another Department. It has happened in a number of cases, because other sections are moving around between Departments. All the section's costs, programmes and policy areas come with it.

The purpose behind this is to bring greater coherence within the Department, as I touched on at the beginning. We have marine planning, responsible for identifying opportunities for development in our oceans, which is particularly relevant at the moment in relation to offshore renewables. At the same time, we are trying to identify areas in our oceans that should have species and certain elements protected. It makes more sense to have the planning and the protection areas together under the one departmental governance so one is not moving ahead of the other. This is why it also makes sense to have the two of them provided for under the Marine Area Planning Act 2021 and this is why the decision has been taken to amend that legislation. A better way to put it would be that the remit of the legislation will be substantially enhanced or broadened rather than it just being amended, but those are the terminologies. This means there are no cost savings or increases and it is purely a like-for-like change. It is aimed at bringing better governance within the Department and more coherence to the challenges and opportunities we face in our marine area now.