Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The practice of tagging unrelated amendments to Bills is something that needs to end. I have some concerns and questions regarding the transfer of maritime area planning functions from the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, namely, the fact that while we need offshore renewables and progress relating to them, there is a concern that there seems to have been a very strongly developer-led approach rather than an environmentally led approach. When we started in the then new Oireachtas in 2020, we were talking about the designation of marine protected areas. In the period since then, there has been a slew of new provisions about maritime planning and now we have the quite ambitious task of transferring all these new provisions relating to maritime area planning functions between Departments. We know moving an area of functionality from one Department to another is another significant piece of logistics. Even as all of these things are happening, the thing that is not happening is progress on designation of marine protected areas despite the fact that Ireland is way behind and we have the EU target. We should be at a point in terms of the EU biodiversity strategy of 30% of waters being protected by 2030. Again, that is the overall EU target, but given that many EU countries do not even have a coast or any water, of course the expectation is that Ireland should be meeting or exceeding the 30% target in terms of doing its share in terms of the EU's overall strategy for proper marine protected areas.

The FairSeas campaign has highlighted how our network of marine protected areas consists mostly of fragmented special areas of conservation and special protected areas covering just 8.3% of our waters. We are way behind where we need to be in terms of the target.We know the current MPA network not only lacks in spatial coverage but is also failing in respect of the implementation of adequate and effective management. I know this from looking at these issues within the climate committee. What we hear from those who wish to develop renewable energy is that they want certainty and clarity. The idea of the DMAPs initiative is that we are moving towards designated areas for certain activities. However, the problem is that these designated areas are moving ahead of the marine protected areas. We are designating areas for maritime planning and for development ahead of designating protected areas - ahead of substantial progress on that. There is a risk of factors changing on the ground and damage being done that may be irreversible. The cart is before the horse, and I think I described it as such three years ago. Now we have carts tagged onto those carts and other carts tagged on, and we still have not made any progress on that fundamental starting point, which is knowing which areas need which kinds of protection so that we can then plan, in the most effective way, which areas can be developed and how they can be developed in ways that are appropriately complementary to protected areas and intersect well with them. I have not heard what the timeline is. When anything comes about related maritime planning, we are told we are in a massive hurry, even though we know this will not deliver anything that will affect the 2030 targets. I do not see that there will be things that will affect our climate targets for 2030. If we just look ahead to 2050, which is, of course, too late for where want to be, I am asking whether we will have taken good measures by then. We are up against the wire in needing progress on offshore renewables and we are also up against the wire on needing progress on protection.

How does the Minister of State envisage this transfer of functions and titles will assist in getting those ducks in a row at last? Presumably it is now going to a Department that has some environmental expertise. How is this transfer of functions going to assist in ensuring that the MPA designation accelerates and is happening ideally before, and at the minimum simultaneous with, large-scale offshore development? Where do these pieces fit? What is the sequence of events when these powers are transferred to this new Department? Will there be some kind of change in practice?