Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I have given members the opening statement so, rather than read through it, I will give a number of introductory remarks. This is a housekeeping exercise in terms of our requirement to go before the committee. When the Government was formed earlier this year, there was an effort to bring together some coherence under a Department of the marine. Marine activities had been spread prior to this over three different Departments: fisheries in agriculture, marine planning in the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment and marine environment in the housing Department. The decision was taken to take the unit of marine environment and place it with marine planning in the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.

We seek the committee's approval to take the remaining funding which has not been spent in the Department of housing, transfer it to the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment and set out the continuation of the activity already provided for. It is a technical exercise following the decision to bring coherence to the marine entity. It is set out in detail. I am happy to answer any direct questions on that but that is in essence what we are asking members to do. It requires the approval of the committee, as a committee of Parliament, to give effect to that decision on the virement of the money from one Department to the next.

From a policy perspective, there is no change. In terms of the way the money is spent, there is no change. The programmes supported under the funding previously provided to the Department of housing all follow. All the lines of governance are there and the funding for the various agencies remains the same. There is no policy shift or change other than moving a unit from one Department to another to give better coherence to the overall governance of fisheries and marine activity. I am happy to answer any questions on that.