Mr. Micheál O'Mahony:

I will provide the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority's perspective on Deputy Ó Cuív's question on special areas of conservation and move on to some of Deputy Martin Ferris's comments. My colleague, Dr. Connolly, has spoken about the Marine Institute's role in special areas of conservation whereas the role of the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority is relatively circumscribed. When the Marine Institute has issued a recommendation on what is an appropriate outtake, it is the authority's job to ensure fishers comply and take only what is allowed. We can show that Ireland has a meaningful approach to special areas of conservation and the compliance of fishers within them. There are logistical challenges in monitoring the outtake, including technological difficulties in transmitting information to a central authority in real time. If Dundalk cockles, for example, is managed on a weekly outtake basis, to get the information collated on a Friday to be in a position to distribute quotas for the following week for individual vessels is logistically challenging. We are looking at fit-for-purpose, small-footprint data loggers which might be appropriate for use in this area.

The Deputy's question was really about who does what and where does it all stop. I will walk the committee through the environmental obligations. The two relevant EU directives - one on birds and the other on flora and fauna more generally - require member states to designate as special areas of conservation places with specific environmental characteristics which it is sought to protect. That has been done by the competent authority for the purpose, which is currently the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, under Natura 2000. There are various marine areas which have been designated, some of which are inshore and some of which are offshore. Currently, the competent authority with responsibility for co-ordinating Ireland's overall approach in this area is the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, which co-ordinates the inputs of the Marine Institute, BIM and the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority to produce a coherent approach to pre-designated special areas of conservation to allow activities including aquaculture. In Deputy Ferris's part of the world, the Cromane Bay fishery was the first area to be opened under the process in 2009-10. Dundalk cockles has been opened and Mr. Whooley mentioned Roaring Water Bay, which is another output of the process.

I encourage Deputies to consider special areas of conservation from the widest possible perspective, which is what we try to encourage in our interface with the industry. I will explain what I mean by that. For example, an aquaculture producer whose production area had been designated as a special area of conservation saw that as a significant challenge and communicated that view evocatively to the authority. He has turned that around, however, and now markets his shellfish across the EU as grown in pristine special area of conservation waters, designated as environmentally protected. I will not say he commands a market premium, but he is certainly maximising the benefits of the designation. Rather than to view designation as a challenge, it can be looked at as an opportunity. Protecting a marine environment is a good thing. The very fact that there is a lucrative, rich, traditional fishery in an area means it contains a unique ecosystem. Protecting it is a good thing.