Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

In regard to the national marine planning framework, NMPF, Bill, the European maritime spatial planning directive requires all member states to publish and implement marine spatial plans by quarter 1 of 2021. I do not want government by paralysis. We have a cross-Government approach and we have been four years involved in developing Ireland's first marine spatial planning framework. This is good and we need to get moving in terms of the resources and how we protect those resources in our seas, and do it in an orderly way. That is what the national marine planning framework is going to do. It is the marine equivalent of the national planning framework. It sets out a long-term spatial planning framework out to 2040 and gives a clear decision-making framework for marine regulatory bodies over a long term. It is structured under three pillars of forward planning, whether on land or marine, namely, the environmental, the economic and the social pillars. It ranges across all areas of human activity, particularly in terms of aquaculture but also offshore renewable energy. We have talked about offshore renewable energy for a long time. One of the problems is that we do not have this type of planning framework and this type of spatial planning to facilitate it into the future. It will give the Government-----

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