Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 2 February 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

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

Mr. P?draic Fogarty:

The Deputy mentioned, for instance, carbon-rich habitats. I agree because there is already a list of rare species and so on and carbon-rich habitats are not mentioned. There is scientific work under way in Ireland and at EU level, so I anticipate there to be EU-wide targets for protected carbon-rich marine habitats. Maybe even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, will have something to say about that. From a future-proofing point of view, it should be mentioned.