Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party)
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I thank Mr. Cronin for that answer. I have a further question on the data. We have a massive space and when one designates an SAC or SPA, it is because of a species or habitat that is present that one arrives at that point. Because of the vast area we have and the lack of science and data, or not enough data on many parts of it, will that present difficulty in our saying we think this should be a marine protected area, MPA? Would it be an MPA designation because we have indicators here that it is sensitive or that there is a certain species present? I see that as being a difficulty as we have such a huge area. When compared to other northern European countries, our maritime area, if we designate 30% of it geographically, would be larger than some of those countries. It is an immense task ahead of us and I just wonder how we will be able to gather all of that data in the same way one would need to do if one was going to designate something under the habitats or birds directive.