Dr. Simon Berrow:

I wrote down "the wholesale privatisation of our marine environment". "Our marine environment" is probably the key part of that sentence. I have written down here "wind farm companies do not own the wind" and they do not own the waves. However, as Dr. Whelan said we need them to invest because it is a high-risk business, especially when coming off the south, east and west coasts. Fixed turbines are the only show in town.

Floating offshore wind is a minimum of ten years away, with huge capital costs. We need these companies to come in and invest in capturing that resource and that potential.

Dr. Whelan asked what our vision is as an island nation. At the moment, consultation with stakeholders, be that coastal communities or, more importantly, the fishing industry tends to run through the planning process. By the time a project has gone out to consultation, the plan is already in place. One is asked one's opinion but it is very late to influence what is going on. We need to take one step back and have a vision for how we want to manage our coastal resources through coastal management.

What is the engagement in terms of our fishing industry? Certainly, inshore fishers are very fearful. They do not know what is happening. They are fearful of marine protected areas, MPA, and offshore wind farms. In fact, they should be one of the biggest supporters and champions of it going forward. They are not consulted, however. They do not know what it looks like. As Deputy Smith said, it is almost like we are selling off the resource, telling them "Off you go" and saying we will pick a few crumbs up at the end.

To take that step back and look at the vision takes that big planning perspective. My fear is that we are slow in doing that and we are running away with ourselves. To take that one step back and have that vision is difficult. Obviously, the national marine planning framework gave us that opportunity. The concern, certainly within the NGO community, is that there is no room and space for debate and that it is being rushed through. It is a huge opportunity to provide that legal framework for planning the next 20 to 30 years of how we manage our inshore resources. It is a race against time, however. It is a very good question and one that we need to discuss in a national conversation, not just with people who live on the coast. We are all islanders. Even a person who lives in County Offaly is an islander and only an hour and a half from the coast. We, therefore, need that national conversation.