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

I hope the Citizens' Assembly on Biodiversity Loss will look very closely at the manner in which our marine resources and offshore marine areas have been grabbed for so-called "relevant projects" in offshore industrial wind. The developers have chosen the sites, which are often very sensitive sites that arguably or definitely should have been designated as marine protected areas, something that the Government has failed to do. I read this morning that hundreds of records released to Coastal Concern Alliance, a citizens' group, under freedom of information rules raise serious questions about habitat protection in the offshore area. The documents seem to suggest political interference in the designation of special areas of conservation and that areas which should have been designated as sandbanks were removed. For example, in the context of areas of the Codling Bank, the Kish Bank and so on that should have been designated as sandbanks and almost certainly would have gained protection but have now been grabbed as sites by developers, there is a suggestion of interference in the designation and lack of protection of those sites where private companies are planning offshore industrial wind.

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