Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 7:

In page 24, between lines 15 and 16, to insert the following:

“(c) the National Heritage Plan;”.

I welcome the Minister of State and his officials who have done a lot of work on this area. Amendment No. 7 aims to include the national heritage plan. I am conscious that there is a national heritage plan 2030. The Minister of State waved a copy of it at us at the committee the other day. It is done and dusted. There may be a little bit of tweaking. I think it is an important document. We do not think enough about marine heritage. Ours is very rich and we have a rich aquatic life. There is so much under the sea.

I want to acknowledge the National Maritime Museum and the work it does. There is great interest around national heritage and our marine heritage. It seemed obvious to insert reference to the national heritage plan.

I did a search in the legislation for keywords such as "Aarhus" and "heritage". It is interesting how rarely some of these turn up in what is a very substantial document. I would like to think we can include this. The Minister of State might ask if we need to be repeating ourselves but we cannot repeat ourselves enough when it comes to our national heritage. We will have a plan. I know this is legislation and the Minister of State will not necessarily want to date the legislation but 2030 is a long way out in terms of our heritage plan. The amendment does not state the national heritage plan 2030 but "the National Heritage Plan". I know that the Minister of State thinks a lot about our heritage. He has been designated with responsibility for heritage. We should bear in mind how many counties are impacted by maritime activity, even in Kilkenny. I hope that we can include the amendment.

Amendment No. 8 relates to European Union instruments and directives which are really important. The integration of coastal zone management and the recommendations on the integrated coastal zone management defines the principles of sound coastal planning and management. The Minister of State and his officials will be aware of them. They are EU instruments. The need for such a tool has come from the realisation that despite increasing deterioration of the natural, social, economic and cultural resources of our European coastal zones, coastal planning activities or planning activities or development decisions still take place in a very sectoral or fragmented way leading to inefficient use of resources, conflicting claims on space and missed opportunities for more sustainable coastal development. It makes sense. I think it should be incorporated.

Sea for Life is another instrument of the EU. It is a marine strategy framework directive, more commonly known as the marine directive. It is an encompassing piece of EU legislation specifically aimed at the protection of the marine environment and natural resources and creating a framework for the sustainable use of our marine waters. The directive involves many implementation challenges, which are addressed through a common implementation strategy between the Commission and the member states and a regional approach to the implementation of its objectives. These are clear. Anyone who has done any research on maritime directives, the EU and the instruments will know these are critically important. I am interested to hear the Minister of State's response.