Dr. Simon Berrow:

That was very eloquent. I am quite new to offshore wind farms. As a group, we have concerns about their impact on whales and dolphins. There was a lack of guidance for wind farm companies in that regard and that is why we produced our policy document, as well as to stimulate debate. The reaction we have had from individual companies has been interesting. We have been working with Wind Energy Ireland. Many companies have thanked us and said that now they have something to discuss. They can say that the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group recommends this and decide what they think about it. There has been a lack of discussion at national level about how we want to roll out wind farms. They are coming at us and they are a good thing. They could be a negative thing or a neutral thing but I think they can be a very positive thing. We are not giving guidance or putting baselines down. We are not building capacity in our research community, not only to roll out pilot studies such as the oyster restoration project, but we are also not building capacity to monitor the effects. We also need the adapted management Dr. Whelan talked about so we can feed back in real time and have a dynamic process. To be honest, we are pushing an open door. The wind farm companies we have spoken to are very open to all sorts of suggestions. Ultimately, they want to harness the wind, get on the grid and make money. They can make a lot of money. The opportunity there is to work together to make sure it is a win-win situation.

There is great concern about how MPAs fit into this process because we are way behind. We are ten years behind on the MPA roll-out and we are paying catch-up. How we marry those different conflicts will be a challenge. Ultimately, we need to support our planners and regulators, not just with research and science but with people on the ground. It is quite shocking how long it takes to get a foreshore licence in Ireland at the minute. A foreshore licence is the very basis of things. If it takes 12 to 18 months to get a licence to deploy a simple device, how are we going to make informed decisions about wind farms and operational issues? How will we integrate the positive biodiversity impacts that have been discussed? We seriously need a national conversation about where we are going with managing our inshore marine sites. A lot of the legislation is coming a bit late. The question is how legislators can influence this process and what legislative incentives can be put in. That is the challenge. What power do members have to push this journey down the road we would like to go down?