Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 11:

In page 29, between lines 28 and 29, to insert the following: “(3) Within 2 months following enactment the Minister shall implement a process to provide for interim protection in the marine environment of the existing NMPF to ensure the designation of marine protected areas in accordance with Article 13(4) of Directive 2008/56/EC is not compromised and notwithstanding anything elsewhere in this Act no Maritime Area Consent or Development Consent shall be granted until that process is completed.”.

What we are seeking, and this follows on from the discussion we had earlier, is to establish interim protections pending the review of the national marine planning framework in accordance with Article 13(4) of the marine strategy framework directive. The relevant section states:

Programmes of measures established pursuant to this Article shall include spatial protection measures, contributing to coherent and representative networks of marine protected areas, adequately covering the diversity of the constituent ecosystems, such as special areas of conservation pursuant to the Habitats Directive, special protection areas pursuant to the Birds Directive, and marine protected areas as agreed by the Community or Member States concerned in the framework of international or regional agreements to which they are parties.

That is the section the amendment refers to and it is about having those interim protections, given there has been, I believe, an acknowledgement that we are behind the curve in terms of the marine protected areas we should have. That is what we are trying to achieve. We do not believe consents for major development of the marine that could damage the marine should be given until such interim protections have been established.

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