Dr. Peter Heffernan:

I thank the Chairman and members of the committee for inviting me to address them today. I wish the committee well in its work and hope that the institute will continue to enjoy a very positive relationship with this committee as it has done with its predecessors.

The statutory remit of the Marine Institute - I should know this by heart - is to undertake, to co-ordinate, to promote and to assist in marine research and development and to provide such services related to marine research and development, that in the opinion of the Marine Institute will promote economic development, and create employment and protect the marine environment. This mandate was further expanded to include the provision of services to support the development of the shipping and related maritime services sector through the Irish Maritime Development Office, which is a service area within the institute.

As can be seen from our annual reports, we operate under the aegis of the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine and are governed by a board of directors under the chair of Dr. John Killeen. The board maintains a strong focus on corporate governance and had good engagement with the executive management team, completing an annual review and update of the institute's strategic business plan in 2015, and it has recently commenced the process for the development of a new strategic plan for completion in 2017.

We provide a range of scientific and technical services to our parent Department as well as to a host of other Departments and Government agencies pertaining to Ireland's maritime domain, an area ten times the size of our terrestrial landmass. We deliver these services through the efforts of a highly qualified and dedicated workforce of approximately 200 full-time and temporary contract staff. We operate from world-class infrastructure including laboratory facilities in Oranmore, County Galway, and Newport, County Mayo, and the research vessels RV Celtic Explorerand RV Celtic Voyageras well as the unmanned submarine Holland IIand regional offices in Dublin and key fishing harbours.

Our turnover is projected at €45 million with 35% of this coming from a variety of sources outside our Vote, including competitive international research awards, charter income and funding from other Departments for service provision. We support the implementation of the Government's integrated marine plan, Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, through our work with the interdepartmental marine co-ordination group chaired by the Minister, Deputy Creed. During 2015 and 2016, we have delivered key projects relating to national marine research infrastructure as well as international collaborative achievements in marine research, and a wide range of national scientific and advisory programmes.

On the research infrastructure front, we saw the successful installation in 2015 and commissioning in 2016 of Ireland's first ocean observatory in Galway Bay, with a 4 km subsea power and data cable deployed off the coast from Spiddal. This collaboration between the institute, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SmartBay Ireland, UCC and DCU is a huge step in Ireland's marine research infrastructure. It will enhance our ability to attract companies to develop and test ocean-energy technology in Ireland, allowing energy developers to monitor how their devices perform in the ocean, as well as providing unique real-time access to monitor ongoing changes in the marine environment including those related to climate change.

A major upgrade to the RV Celtic Explorerwas carried out in 2015 and included the installation of state-of-the-art sonar systems for bathymetric mapping in deep and shallow waters and the installation of a deep-water sub-bottom profiler.

On the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance and the implementation of the Galway statement, in June 2015, an international team of seabed mapping experts led by Thomas Furey from the Marine Institute boarded the national research vessel, RV Celtic Explorer, to map a transect of the Atlantic Ocean between St. John's, Newfoundland, and Galway. This was the first seabed mapping survey to take place under the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance, a collaboration between the EU, USA and Canada, established by the Galway statement signed at the Marine Institute in May 2013. Among the achievements of this survey was the charting of a mountain range with peaks higher than Carrauntoohil.

The Marine Institute is taking a lead role in this collaboration as the lead partner in the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance co-ordination and support action funded by EU Horizon 2020. Further transects followed with international vessels, and the RV Celtic Explorerdid a further transect in 2016. Work is at an advanced stage with an international seabed mapping working group to prepare a campaign mapping the entire north Atlantic with the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance partners. Ireland is regarded as a world leader in this arena in light of the national seabed-mapping programme led by the Geological Survey of Ireland and the Marine Institute.

Significant EU research funding has been leveraged by EU research organisations to support the implementation of the Galway statement with approximately €140 million invested in a range of projects to date from Horizon 2020. Major alignment efforts with Canadian and USA national funding programmes have been achieved. Canada announced an unprecedented $220 million investment in an Atlantic Oceans Frontier Institute during September. This is a collaboration between universities in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. The Marine Institute is one of a very select group of international partners in this initiative.

Ireland continues to perform excellently in the marine-related funding programmes of Horizon 2020. To date, Irish researchers, including those in the Marine Institute, have secured between 4.5% and 5% of available funds which is several times the expected pro rataearnings by Ireland.

We worked closely with the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine on the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund, EMFF, operational programme for Ireland, particularly on developing biodiversity and data collection schemes. The EMFF operational programme was launched in January 2016 and the Marine Institute was allocated funding of €36 million for the new data collection framework until 2020. This will support the largest fishery scientific efforts in the history of the State during the period of the programme. Further important programmes were established under the EMFF integrated maritime policy element to support the work of the interagency marine development team to be established in the Marine institute-IMDO; and to support the provision of technical and scientific services from the Marine Institute to the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, which has the lead role in the establishment of marine spatial planning in Ireland.

We maintained a strong focus on the delivery of key scientific services, including seafood safety, providing scientific and technical advice to the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine, carrying out a range of monitoring programmes to support the EU legislation including the marine strategy framework directive, the water framework directive and the EU data collection multiannual programme. Retention and expansion of our laboratory accreditation ISO certification has been important to ensure the highest quality in all scientific and regulatory advisory services.

Our role in ensuring the safety of Irish seafood involves supporting the Sea-Fisheries Protection Authority, SFPA, and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland by monitoring farmed finfish product to ensure residues of treatment chemicals are below regulatory limits; farmed and wild shellfish for the incidence of potentially harmful microbiological agents such as E. coli and norovirus, and biotoxins; and Irish waters for the incidence and prevalence of harmful algal blooms and environmental contaminants, with contaminant analyses also supporting EU requirements under the water framework directive and the marine strategy framework directive.

The Marine Institute houses three national reference laboratories for diseases of finfish, molluscs and crustaceans, and is the competent authority for ensuring compliance with fish health regulations. We also support marine research nationally through our research and funding office and by providing access to the national research vessels, RV Celtic Explorerand RV Celtic Voyagerthrough the ship-time funding programme.

We produce an annual stock book which contains the latest scientific advice on those stocks fished by the Irish fleet. This was delivered to the Minister in November 2015 and was a key component of his sustainability assessment presented to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine in December 2015. It was also at the heart of the negotiations at the EU Council of Ministers in December, which set fishing opportunities for 2016.

We look forward to this year's discussions with the committee in the coming weeks.

We provide significant support for education and training across scientific disciplines and in the maritime and seafarers domain each year through programmes such as the strategic marine alliance for research and training, SMART, and the Irish seafarers education assistance scheme, ISEAS, in partnership with a range of higher education institutions. We launched the Cullen fellowship programme in 2015 that provides research and training opportunities for scientists in marine and related disciplines leading to masters and PhD degrees. We also target programmes at primary level, such as the Follow the Fleet and the Explorers Education Programme, as well as secondary levels, with targeted local science festival participation, school visits to the national research vessels and an open day at our Oranmore headquarters for transition year students annually. We are expanding our use of video content to bring our work and the importance of our shared marine resource to a wider audience. This includes the Galway Bay ocean energy test site and ocean observatory and the transatlantic seabed mapping survey.

The Marine Institute supports the work of the marine co-ordination group and the implementation of the integrated marine plan, Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, HOOW. This involved the provision of key support services for the work of task forces, the preparation of the annual progress reports and organising the major national Our Ocean Wealth Conference, now in its third year and attracting over 400 delegates annually, and the public engagement event SeaFest. I recommend that members attend the conference on 30 June 2017. The Marine Institute will house and manage the soon-to-be-formed marine development team, a team created to work collaboratively across development agencies and Departments to achieve the ambitions set out by the Government in the Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth plan.

Recent independent economic reports on the performance of the Irish marine economy indicate it is outperforming the general economy and on course to achieve the HOOW turnover target of €6.4 billion by 2020. Turnover growth from 2010 to 2012 was from €3.1 billion to €4.2 billion, with a continued estimated trend to €4.5 billion to 2014. The recent OECD report published this year indicates the anticipated growth trends across the global marine economy from its current level at $1.5 trillion to an estimated $3 trillion in 2030; it is important that Ireland continues to work in an integrated manner in order to take best advantage of global growth projections.

Under the aegis of the marine co-ordination group and as part of the implementation of Harnessing Our Ocean Wealth, a major marine festival to generate public engagement about Ireland’s marine domain was created. In its first year of 2015, it drew 10,000 visitors to Ringaskiddy in Cork and last year in Galway it grew to over 60,000 visitors. Plans are well under way for 2017 events in Galway from 28 June to 2 July across a campus stretching from NUI Galway to the harbour area. Again, I take the opportunity to encourage committee members to participate. The new national marine research and innovation strategy is a key action for the Marine Institute under the integrated marine plan. There is also preparation of a new national marine research and innovation strategy for 2021. This has been prepared in consultation with the marine co-ordination group and is now open to an online public consultation process in November. We aim to complete the strategy by the year-end, if feasible, depending on the scale of public consultation. We welcome the views of the committee on the draft plan.

On climate change and oceans, we can consider that half the oxygen we get in every breath we take has been produced by microscopic plants floating in the ocean surface layers and that 97% of all the water on this planet has its "reservoir" in our oceans, so one can begin to grasp the critical importance of a healthy ocean to the planet's life support system. Our weather and climate are hugely dependent on the interactions of the Atlantic Ocean and the atmosphere. With the reality of the serious challenges posed by climate change and its impacts both on the oceans and coastal nations such as Ireland, the Marine Institute is redoubling its efforts to participate in national, European and global scientific programmes to generate fit-for-purpose capability to forecast the major changes in our oceans and help mitigate their impacts. We also participate in climate action groups with the Department and interdepartmental and agency climate-related scientific committees and advisory bodies. We anticipate a significant societal demand for enhanced scientific capacity in this arena in the years immediately ahead. One of the major reports to be produced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change next year will deal with the interactions between the oceans and cryosphere.

Brexit poses significant challenges and complex issues for the entire marine economy. The institute will place a high priority on supporting our parent Department with scientific advisory services in the period ahead as the Department continues to deepen its analyses of the likely impacts on the fisheries sector. In addition, through the work of the Irish Marine Development Office, we will continue to assist the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport in forming a comprehensive understanding of the likely impacts of Brexit on our shipping, ports and transport sectors, as well as the consequential impact on international trade. This in turn supports our parent Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport as they feed into the central contingency framework being co-ordinated by the Department of the Taoiseach.

Recognising the contribution and quality of Marine Institute staff, the board, together with the executive management team, made employee engagement a key ongoing priority objective. A Great Place To Work survey of staff was carried out, as well as a culture audit, and a number of initiatives were introduced focusing on enhancing employee engagement. We have also achieved and maintained Excellence Through People standard accreditation in human resource management and this has been held continuously since 2005. This accreditation complements the wide range of laboratory-based scientific services that are accredited by internationally recognised accreditation bodies. Staffing levels were a significant pressure point for the organisation, particularly during the latter stages of the recent economic crisis, when they reached critical levels. Through the dedication and sustained effort of the staff of the institute, we managed to maintain and in some instances increase core service delivery programmes throughout the very challenging climate of cutbacks and staffing embargoes. The institute continues to liaise with Department to address critical competency and capacity gap areas in the context of the work force planning framework in the public sector. We have seen some limited but very welcome recruitment from Exchequer resources in recent times and we have benefited to a greater degree from capacity growth funded from external competitive funding sources.

The Marine Institute has recently been honoured by two international awards. In September, we received the International Co-operation Project award from Commissioner Vella, DG MARE, for our role as co-ordinators of the Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance Co-ordination and Support Action. Tomorrow, we will be the recipients of The Maritime Alliance - based in San Diego - International Maritime Partner award in recognition of the Marine Institute’s role in the creation and ongoing promotion of the SmartOcean Cluster in Ireland, which is a cluster of marine technology and ICT-based services companies and research centres.

I thank the Chairman and the committee will appreciate from the above that the Marine Institute is a dynamic, internationally recognised organisation that provides a wide variety of services to our diverse clients. I look forward to the opportunity to discuss matters of interest with the committee and to working with it in the period ahead.