Ms Laura Brien:

As Dr. Mellett has said, we are one of the groups that the offshore renewable fisheries task force consults with on various issues. We are plugged into that engagement and will continue to be. We have had good engagement to date with the coastal local authorities and the County and City Management Association, CCMA, because of the change in the Marine Area Planning Act and new rights and obligations on the local government side concerning that. We have had various engagements facilitated through the Office of the Planning Regulator to make sure all of our processes are aligned and we understand what everybody is doing. It is not just renewable energy; it is also leisure and tourism facilities and developments. Those are also important to coastal communities. We certainly do not just view ourselves as being here for offshore renewable energy. We are here to make sure we are making the best use of our maritime resources across everything. From the coastal planning authority's bit, we have an engagement with Uisce Éireann. They care about the development of sewage treatment plants within their communities, which is important for them from a clean water perspective. We obviously look at that too in terms of facilitating marine area consents for Uisce Éireann. There is a lot of that broader development on which we are engaging with the various stakeholders.

To date the community benefit fund has been tied to the offshore renewable energy support scheme. The successful bidders in the first ORESS auction have obligations to support a certain level of community benefit. That is monitored through the role of the SEAI. We see the importance of that community benefit fund as being tied to all maritime area consents, MACs, as opposed to just ORESS. That would be a little more consistent with how other countries have done this. Where other countries have separated the lease of the seabed from support schemes, they have put that community obligation and community benefit fund on the lease aspect. That would be the parallel with our MAC. In our statement of strategy going forward we would be putting that obligation on the MAC side rather than just one particular aspect of the usage, which is through the report scheme as it is today.