Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 8:

In page 11, line 6, after "the" where it secondly occurs to insert "living or".

I realise that in all of this we are constrained by the mirroring of the language of the convention. All of these amendments seek to adjust the language. Conventions are living documents and we can add layers to them. We certainly should not be failing to achieve our goals under these conventions but we should look to apply and build a body of best practice of interpretation in this. My concern is where the language refers to "the economic exploitation and exploration of the non-living natural resources of the exclusive economic zone". My amendment will adjust this to including living resources.

This is not simply about fisheries as I am also thinking about the likes of seaweed. It is an extremely important factor and certainly when we speak about territorial waters, where I know we have somewhat more power. We can look at the wider parts of marine life and particularly what is also a UN obligation that we negotiated pertaining to life under water, particularly the specific obligations that the State has with real targets. As I mentioned, 2020 was a target for when we were meant to have 10% highly protected areas and to have active restoration measures in place. We are meant to hit much harder targets by 2025 under the UN sustainable development goals for life below water.

We have a mandate from the UN to specifically look at life under water, so it would be appropriate to adjust this section to include "living" resources. I understand there are concerns about language mirroring but I hope the Minister of State will work to find other ways to ensure life under water is being properly taken in with this.