Vincent P Martin (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. As the Minister of State stated, this Bill is intended to act as a complement to the maritime area planning Bill, which will establish a single marine planning consent system. This legislation must be consistent and supportive of Ireland's move away from fossil fuels. In February 2021, the Cabinet approved a ban on all new oil and gas exploration, which came into effect immediately. This will be put on a legislative basis, through the passing of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Bill. Perhaps the Minister of State could confirm that this is the case. I invite him to assuage and assure people that the Bill being read on Second Stage today is not controversial and does not do anything to the contrary to the Government's new policy position. It is modernising legislation that is technical in substance, for instance, changing the word "seas" to "sea". As Senator Chambers noted, it consolidates legislation in this area and will offer clarification going forward.

The Maritime Jurisdiction Bill states that the State may exercise sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring the continental shelf and exploiting the mineral and other non-living resources of the seabed and its subsoil, together with any living organisms belonging to the sedentary species. As I stated, it is important that this precludes all infrastructure used in the exploration or exploitation of fossil fuels and includes infrastructure allowing our national grid to connect to the UK and France.

It is essential that we protect the rights of our small-scale fisheries and level the playing field. Sustainable fishing stocks and ending overfishing are an essential part of sustaining the livelihoods of fishing communities. According to my understanding, the Bill does not affect claims to Rockall Island, which has been a contentious topic over many years. Ireland does not claim it, nor do we recognise the UK's claim over it. Perhaps the Minister of State can assure us that this Bill does not have the unintended consequence of us recognising the British claim on Rockall.In recent times, some of the type of gunboat diplomacy and demonstrations by Scottish and UK fleets around Rockall left a lot to be desired and did nothing for international good relations. The position of the Government is that the islet is uninhabited and should not affect continental maritime territorial claims. I am confident that is the situation.

This Bill appears to be a piece in a jigsaw. The Minister of State referred to potential energy. Ireland is the Saudi Arabia of clean green energy if it is utilised properly, but we must bring communities with us. It is important that when one hears the word "green" that one does not run to the hills and say it must be right. Every green initiative should be forensically examined to ensure there is no greenwashing. Nobody should shut up just because he or she heard that something is a green technology. It merits close scrutiny. At the heart of such scrutiny is that people are brought along on the green journey of advancements. There should be community gain and community buy-in. If there is not, it alienates the green message and does terrible damage to that message.

This Bill will be an essential piece in the jigsaw and I hope the consultation will follow, as Ireland turns a different page. I hope it will be a very proud page in its history whereby we will use our amazing natural resources, starting with tidal, wave and, of course wind, which is so much more powerful than solar, to create jobs in Ireland and to meet our climate targets and play our part in having a cleaner, greener global economy.