Christopher O'Sullivan (Cork South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have spoken in this Chamber many times about the need to protect wildlife and habitats. Our oceans are the greatest habitat of all. Anja Murray writes in the Irish Examinertoday that "The world’s oceans contain the last great wilderness on Earth". That is pretty powerful. It is true and we want it to remain true. I have often spoken of the abundance of whales, dolphins and marine wildlife off our coast. We need to introduce steps to protect that wildlife. There are two simple steps we can take immediately. First, is to support the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine in his push to increase the six-to-12 nautical mile fishing zone exclusively for the Irish fleet to 20 nautical miles. That would be an incredibly positive step both for wildlife and the fishing sector. Second, as other Deputies have noted, we need to urgently introduce legislation around MPAs and get to that target of 30% of MPAs.

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