Dr. Cecil Beamish:

Some of that debate is about sea lice. The general environmental information on the seabed, living marine organisms, the tidal area and migrating animals and birds is effectively a national asset that is being created to allow informed decision making on anything else that might apply to be developed in a Natura area. The State will equally have to give informed consent. It will be another Department or consenting authority, rather than this Department, that will have to give informed consent, in line with the habitats and birds directives, on whatever the application is. The Department or consenting authority in question will have access to this data and, therefore, should be able to make a quicker informed decision to accept or reject the application in accordance with the Natura directives. If this data did not exist, any individual promoter of a project would be equally at a loss and under pressure to produce those data to allow an informed decision. The information might not be easily available to an individual promoter and, therefore, that project might not proceed. The data collected do not relate only to fisheries and aquaculture but can assist with wider decision-making.