Mr. Conor McCabe:

I absolutely recognise that we wanted to get this done in 2021. I hope that this week we will be advertising on our website for a chair of that group. I am delighted with that progress. We have met separately with stakeholders in fisheries and renewable energy around the formation of the group. We have not been inactive. It is important to note that the Bill took all of our resources. It was an incredibly complex and difficult piece of legislation to get through. To tie this back to Deputy Bruton's question around what can be done, I think the legislation and the framework really showed what the State can do when it puts it mind to something. Right across a number of Departments and the political apparatus, people really got behind the legislation and got it through. We spent 22 to 24 hours at Committee Stage alone, but everybody had a very similar vision and objective, even though there might have been disagreements around the contents of the Bill. That really showed that when we all focus, we can get things done. We need a similar focus now, going into the future. We will be bringing forward a marine planning policy statement over the coming months. We will be laying a draft before the Oireachtas.

Similarly we would like to focus on that as it could set a clear direction for all marine planning into the future. We want to lay down exactly what are our priorities in this respect. That covers the questions that may have come our way.