Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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One of the most important areas of EU environmental law is marine protected areas, MPAs, and we are eagerly awaiting the legislation on that. Given the very considerable body of work being undertaken by the Department's staff and the Attorney General's staff, which a colleague of Ms Graham's suggested in a briefing to us yesterday would not be concluded for another six months, how is that going to interact with the production and then introduction of the MPA legislation and the processing of that? While the Department is trying to improve, streamline and clarify the existing Planning and Development Act and all the environmental elements of that, we have this other area looming, namely, our desire to move ahead with offshore wind to meet our renewable energy targets. However, we are very far behind where we should be with the MPAs. Is there a fear that the MPA element of the overall maritime planning piece could be delayed because of this other piece of work? Will it happen in tandem? How will the Department ensure the outworkings of the MPAs are adequately reflected in the environment section of a new planning and development Bill?