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

I will first address some of the issues before I give a comment specific to the amendment. We can all agree with Deputy Michael Healy-Rae that that type of activity is completely unsustainable. When we travelled around the coastal areas of the country, the last place we entered was Portmagee. We are very clear that the fishers in particular want marine protection for their own activities. That is not to say that no activities may take place in marine protected areas. It is just setting about the objectives and the types of features we want to protect within protected areas, which will include heritage fishing and traditional fishing. We want to ensure that type of activity is protected within the marine environment. We were always clear that this is not just about the marine. It is about people in coastal communities. The points the Deputy made are critical to what we are trying to achieve with marine protected areas.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan spoke about sensitivity mapping. As Deputy Boyd Barrett said, we started from behind the curve relative to other countries, but we are rapidly catching up and we are putting significant resources into this area. I am confident that we will have the legislative part of it, hopefully towards the first half of 2022, and that will give us the legislative context for marine protected areas, which is critically important.

I stress that this is not an either-or situation. We are trying to achieve the best for marine protection and to have an active marine environment - a blue economy - while protecting blue carbon, seagrasses and all the other features we also want to protect in the marine. As I said previously, there is already within the planning system a requirement for appropriate assessments and SEAs in all developments.

This amendment again conflates the MSP directive with the marine strategy framework directive and seeks to upend the implementation of one over the other. Both will need to be provided for on the Statute Book and we are acting on that.

Regarding marine protected areas, the progress to deliver the commitments contained in the programme for Government have been significant and encouraging. Following on from the independent expert advisory group report published in January of this year and in tandem with the review of the analysis of submissions received through the subsequent public consultation process from February to July, we have commenced work on developing a general scheme of new MPA legislation. The development of this legislation is expected to continue into 2022. Officials from our Department provided a progress update on marine protected areas to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage yesterday.

The substance of this amendment is about protection of the marine environment and it requires that nothing happens in the maritime area until interim measures are put in place to protect potential MPAs. I am not sure that the Deputies fully appreciate the impact of this amendment on local coastal communities. I have previously said that this Bill is for all maritime users. This amendment would have significant and severe consequences on local fisheries, ports, harbours, tourist facilities, local boat clubs and persons who privately own parts of the current foreshore. None of these would be expanded, amended or improved until the work referred to in this amendment was completed.

Existing rights under Part 15 of the Planning and Development Act would be lost. Where is the justification for such severe action? Where is the timeline for these measures? How will the public know when they can start to interact with their maritime area again? There is an overreach here that impacts on all maritime users. As the Deputy put it on Committee Stage, the net has been cast far too wide.

There is no definition of exactly what these interim measures are or how they would interact with the relevant provisions in either the MAC assessment criteria or the criteria coastal planning authorities or An Bord Pleanála must have regard to when assessing planning applications. There is no indication as to how they would relate to the maritime licensing system being proposed, which is separate from both the MAC and planning parts. This is extremely important from a legislative point of view. How would it work? It appears that there are no express obligations to have regard to any of these so-called interim measures in decision-making and no further thought put into their operation. I will not accept the amendment.

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