Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I will use my time to discuss the scope of this Bill and its potential limitations with respect to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. As was previously highlighted in the Seanad, there is some concern about Schedule 1 of the Bill, which interprets our role in governing our seas in a very restrictive manner. Regarding the sovereign rights of Ireland's maritime jurisdiction, there are a number of criteria to which the State must have regard under this legislation. The inclusion of exploitation and conservation of natural resources in this Bill, but not the restoration of our maritime natural resources, is an oversight that could have serious consequences for the future of our marine ecosystems. So much of our marine environment and biodiversity is already damaged, if not destroyed, and including restoration in the Bill would go some way towards acknowledging the work we still need to do. While conservation is necessary it will not go far enough in protecting our waters. Including restoration would also be appropriate given our obligations under EU environmental law pertaining to marine habitats, species and ecosystems, as well as other international conventions to which Ireland is a party and in which it has been involved since UNCLOS.

Most people think of the atmosphere as being at the front line of climate change when, really, it is our marine waters that are at the coalface when it comes to our warming planet. The capacity of our waters and the marine life within them to absorb carbon dioxide is dwindling as a consequence of our damaging activities, and so are our chances of recovering our most vast and important lifeline. The oceans are our life support machine. They uphold life on this planet and provide 50% of the oxygen we breathe, most of which comes from phytoplankton. However, phytoplankton populations have dropped by 40% since the 1950s so we are already on a path towards maritime destruction, which will have tremendous consequences for us. Our seas and oceans are under huge pressure from the combined impact of climate change, acidification, shipping, economic exploitation, fossil fuel exploration, sonar activity and seismic surveys. Since Ireland was declared a dolphin sanctuary in 1991, cetacean strandings - that is, strandings of whales and dolphins - have increased by 350%. Increasingly, the effects of offshore oil and gas exploration practices are being linked to these events and to marine biodiversity continuing to experience serious pressure.

At present, only 2.4% of Irish waters are designated as marine protected areas, which is the second lowest level in the EU. That is despite Ireland agreeing to designate 10% as protected areas by 2020 and 30% by 2030 under the EU biodiversity strategy. The Government must raise the level of ambition and immediately ratchet up the designation process. That must be accompanied by better marine regulation, including around seismic activity, which can disrupt sonar or migration patterns. We also need strong interim measures on a precautionary basis, pending the delivery of a fully defined and properly specified marine park network. It is simply not good enough to say that we will get there by 2030. Our high water-to-land ratio also presents us with a golden opportunity to showcase how we should manage and protect our marine waters and biodiversity. Why not meet that sense of urgency and take this challenge on board to demonstrate to Europe the importance of our waters, key species such as cetaceans and habitats such as seagrass in pursuit of climate action?

As the Minister of State knows, I recently introduced my first Bill to the House by means of which I am seeking protection of basking sharks under the Wildlife Act. They are endangered and at very high risk of extinction in the wild and should be afforded the same protections we afford whales and dolphins under the Wildlife Act. They have been a protected species in UK waters since 1998 but, despite their endangered status, they are still not a protected species under our own national marine conservation legislation. Apart from seeking support from the Government to progress my basking shark Bill, we have an opportunity in the Bill before us to address the restoration of that species and others by identifying living species as something against which offences may be committed and to which appropriate legal protection can be given, making it an offence for a person in an exclusive economic zone to economically exploit or explore the non-living natural resources of that zone. In the Seanad, the Minister of State, Deputy Brophy, indicated that he would consider some of these matters when the Bill moved to the Dáil, including the ease with which offences can be addressed where breaches of nature laws are involved. I would like him to clarify his comments on nature reserves under the Wildlife Act, particularly as there was some confusion about what was being proposed. I ask that the Minister of State engage with the Parliamentary Counsel to see if protections for marine biodiversity can be included in this Bill and to ensure that it is future-proofed to incorporate future conventions relating to marine conservation coming down the line. I hope to bring forward amendments to that effect.

When I began my career, which was a long time ago now, it was after I had grown up in a marine household. My neighbours worked for the Marine Institute and would often bring me samples to look at under the microscope in my bedroom. The marine area has been an important part of my life growing up, as well as that of my family and community. We have a very long history and culture in connection with the marine, but we have never actually protected to the full extent necessary. We now have an opportunity - and I do see the biodiversity and climate crisis as an opportunity - to rethink our engagement with our environment, the marine and our terrestrial areas, and to re-envisage how we are going to live and what our connections to nature will be. We have lost our cultural and natural connections with much of our environment and that is a large part of the problem. We should use the next number of years to reassert those connections, demonstrate their importance to our communities and listen to what our communities want to happen. We must work to make Ireland a much better place that is more respectful of the natural sphere in which we live because we have not been respectful of it so far. We have only seen it as something to make use of from an economic perspective. We need to be ambitious in this regard because we are not just talking about our relationship with the marine and our environment but about future generations' relationships with them as well.

I ask that the Minister of State take these suggestions and comments on board, as well as those of my colleagues. There was a great deal of discussion on the issues that have been raised in the Seanad. I ask him to look at how we can strengthen this Bill and make sure we do as much as we possibly can to protect future generations.

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