Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. We are great friends, both inside and outside this Chamber, so I hope he does not mind if I put the boot in a little on this. That was not really much of an answer. The clock is ticking on this Government, whether we are talking about November, December, Valentine's Day, or March 2025. There is not a great deal of time and this is key legislation. Under those programme for Government commitments, we have seen an expansion of marine protected areas. We are on course for that 10% within the lifetime of this Government, which is huge, from the base that we came from, but we need to have that underpinned. The Minister of State has done brilliant work on national parks too. That also needs to be underpinned by legislation. Simply writing a designation on a map, unless we understand in a comprehensive legal way what the protections offered for those areas are, does not amount to a great hill of beans. I will push the Minister of State again. When are we likely to see this? When are we likely to be able to cast our eye over it and at least begin the process of legislating?

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