Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is correct. Clearly, there are protections in the planning process in advance of the designation of marine protected areas. The challenge is that they are not strong, particularly as they do not have to take into account to the same extent the ecosystems approach, which is crucial both to the maritime special planning directive and the marine protected areas legislation. What would be reassuring is, while the good work is under way on the marine protected areas legislation and the subsequent designation, that there would be other interim measures or protections, particularly in respect of the seven locations where the legacy projects are to be advanced and clearly need to be advanced over the next year to two years, that could move us somewhere from where we would otherwise be, which is the EIA requirements and so forth under existing planning legislation and this Bill, to the stronger position of the marine protected areas.

I know the Minister of State will not accept the amendment so I do not want to waste his time, but I am trying to press him to say that there have be additional interim measures. His section of the Department and the folks who are looking at the planning regime need to do more work between now and when the maritime area consents, MACs, and the planning applications for the legacy projects are developed to ensure that in the interim period we have the strongest possible protections, particularly from an ecosystems-based approach for marine biodiversity, so we get the best of both worlds. We are on the same page on this one. It is just whether more can be done in terms of the interim measures. The amendment sets out a process by which such interim measures could be put in place. The Minister of State is not going to accept it, but that does not stop him doing more work on the interim measures in the intervening period.

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