Mr. Conor McCabe:

I will start with the Deputy's final questions and I thank him for his comments. Fisheries is outside my area of responsibility, so I am not going to answer any questions on it, because it is a matter of the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine and his Department. As I said previously, we are building a regime, and it is not a stand-alone regime that will be used only once. We will want to use it many times, so there is always the option for other activities that are not included at this point in time to become part of that regime at a later date, however the two activities that the Deputy mentioned are under the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, so it is for him and his Department to make that call.

The second point I would make, which is almost a subpoint, is that regardless of whether an activity is included in this marine planning and development management Bill, all marine activities are subject to the national marine planning framework. Fisheries, aquaculture, wastewater treatment and things that are not obviously named in the marine planning and development management Bill are all covered. Some 16 sectoral activities are covered, so regardless of whether aquaculture is included in the Bill, any decisions taken, policies created, programmes or developments must take into account and meet the objectives of the national marine planning framework. It is already legislated for under Part 5 of the Planning and Development Act 2018, and we are restating that in the marine planning and development management Bill, so decision-makers are legally bound to take the national marine planning framework into account.

In terms of the marine protected areas and the potential for judicial reviews, I do not wish to comment on that, simply because the Minister is currently considering a report of the expert group led by Dr. Tasman Crowe, which Deputy Ó Broin mentioned earlier. I understand that the report will be published in the next couple of months, and a full public consultation will be held on it. I presume that is the appropriate arena in which to focus on those issues.

I thank Deputy Cian O'Callaghan for raising the issue of marine protected areas because it is important to reach that target of 30%. That is an objective for us. It is a considerable increase from the previous 10% target.