Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the comments by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, on this important legislation and note his remarks on the need to put citizens at the heart of the process and ensure we meet our climate action goals, in a way that does not undermine our environmental protection obligations. That is exactly what the Government is doing. I strongly disagree with the narrative being put forward that the requirements of the offshore renewable sector are somehow being put ahead of marine biodiversity protection. This is not a binary choice. We can, and must, have a healthy resilient and biodiverse marine environment, while achieving our ambition on renewable energy.

I am confident we will achieve this and support coastal communities to thrive in the process. Our Department is reviewing and independently analysing 2,200 public submissions on the expert group report on marine protected areas. As part of this engagement process, I attended a number of gatherings at which I met fishers, young people, companies involved in the blue economy, heritage fishing interests, environmental NGOs and many others, both online and in coastal towns from Donegal to west Cork and Waterford.

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The common ask from everyone I met was for ongoing and meaningful engagement and participation. This echoes the contributions made in the House yesterday and today. We have taken this on board and are designing mechanisms for participation at local, regional and national level. I will be making arrangements for officials leading that process to make themselves available to the Oireachtas joint committee to discuss consultation and outline a way forward and I would encourage Members to engage constructively in that conversation.

In November we will begin to develop the marine protected areas legislation and this work is expected to continue into 2022. The scope and complexity of this process, along with the need for it to remain independent of the statutory consent process, necessarily means the marine protected areas legislation will post-date the establishment of new marine spatial planning regime, which is centred around human activities. However, I intend to investigate the feasibility of pre-designation for important habitats, species and ecological functions through the designated marine area plan process.

It is worth noting the existing measures to ensure the protection of the marine environment that are already applied in Ireland. These include legal requirements for strategic environmental assessments, environmental impact assessments and appropriate assessments; the protection of listed species and habitats under the birds and natural habitats regulations and the Wildlife Acts; and the designation and conservation of Ireland's Natura 2000 network of sites. These are binding environmental targets under the national marine planning framework that are now central to the national planning and consent process for maritime activities.

We know we will not be able to deliver our blue growth ambitions for renewable energy, blue carbon storage, food production, transport and tourism if we do not actively protect the marine environment from human-made pressures. The Government's measure of success in this regard will have to be a marine environment that is clean, healthy, well understood and resilient to climate change. A thriving maritime sector that is sustainable has better prospects in the long term and that marine resource will feature species and habitats that are protected and biologically diverse for many generations to come. I look forward with my colleagues to delivering on that. As I said, we have had a number of queries form Members here today and yesterday and we will try to get back to Members individually in relation to those. We look forward to this Bill progressing.

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