Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed)

Professor Tasman Crowe:

I completely agree that the resourcing is the critical piece. That does not really appear in the legislation as such. A strong push from the citizens' assembly and from everybody we spoke to is that the legislation needs to be adequately resourced to make it work, otherwise people will put a lot of effort into creating something that is wonderful in its aspiration but is weak in its implementation. As the Deputy said, that has been such a common pattern. It would be fantastic if we could avoid that, and that the proper resourcing is put in place.