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

The marine protected areas legislation has been on the priority legislation list for 20 months and it still has not even been published. The Minister of State, Deputy Malcolm Noonan, was asked about this in January of this year and he said it would be published in the first quarter. It still has not been published. Ireland has the lowest proportion of its marine environment protected of almost any country in Europe. Averages are 40% and some are at 50%, which is well in excess of the 30%. Ireland, however, has 9% of our marine area protected when there are very serious threats to marine life, marine biology and biodiversity. The biodiversity crisis is as urgent - or possibly even more urgent - than the climate crisis because if we destroy ecosystems in the ocean, we destroy the basis for human existence.

I want to know when that legislation will be published and an assurance that the reason it is not being done and we do not have the level of protection we need is that certain private developers have their eye on sensitive sites that almost certainly would be protected if we had the marine protected legislation. For example, there are the very sensitive sandbanks on the Kish Bank and the Codling Bank that are very rich spawning grounds for fish and so on. There are other similar sites that private developers have got their eyes on. The environment and biodiversity must come before the profits of private developers.

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