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

It is really important, at the upcoming European Council meeting, that we discuss with our European counterparts how we approach how missile tests and military tests are carried out in all European waters, not just Irish waters. More urgent, however, is the issue with the French Navy and the fact that, as we speak, looking at data from maps, its ships are within the Irish exclusive economic zone, EEZ, at the moment. Even though the French Navy has stated that it has moved its exercises out of the EEZ, all indications are that part of these exercises will overlap with a part of the Irish EEZ. A number of weeks ago, we had discussions in the Dáil about the Russian exercises that were due to take place off the south-west coast of Ireland. The exercises being carried out by the French are no different from what the Russians were proposing to do. In fact, it could be argued that the intensity and scale of the exercises being engaged in by the French is bigger.

The Minister of State will remember that we spoke about the impact that loud noise, acoustic activity and sonar activity have on marine wildlife, particularly cetaceans, during the debate to which I refer. The French naval exercises, which are happening now and which will continue over the next few days, are occurring at one of the most well-known hotspots for whale and dolphin activity, namely, at the Porcupine Seabight and in and around the continental shelf. This is a well-known hotspot for species like sperm whales and pilot whales. These are deep-diving species that rely heavily on sonar and high-frequency clicks to hunt. Any acoustic activity has a serious detrimental impact on that. We saw where the British Navy had to concede that its activity off the west coast of Scotland and west coast of Ireland led to a mass stranding event involving whales and dolphins. This is an issue.

In the short term, we urgently need to reach out to those in the French Embassy to ask them to cease this activity or at the very least move the activity further out into deeper waters where we do not have the same frequency and number of cetaceans. As a country and at European level, we need to have discussion about these military exercises. They are proven and known to have an impact on sperm whales, pilot whales and other whale and dolphin species that are already under severe threat from other pressures. That point needs to be made.

It is not just wildlife that is impacted. Obviously, the fishing sector will be affected as well. Livelihoods are at risk because this high-volume acoustic activity is known to also displace fish stocks. That will have a detrimental effect on marine wildlife but also on people who earn their livelihoods from fishing. I will very briefly raise a final point similar to that on fishing. We need to go back to Europe and ask for a derogation in respect of some type of potential help and support for the those in the Irish fishing sector regarding the costs relating to fishing and cost of diesel and how these are impacting on their livelihoods.

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