Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. This is our first engagement since his appointment, so he is very welcome to the House. The 2020 programme for Government committed to delivering on our global commitment to protect 30% of our marine area through marine protected areas. This was in line with the Montreal Declaration on the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities, with the EU biodiversity strategy, with what would be our fourth national biodiversity action plan and with objectives in the marine strategy framework directive. A lot of the preliminary work that had been done in 2019 was presented in a really excellent report by Professor Tasman Crowe on how we get there and how we deliver this. This is an internationally regarded means of achieving marine biodiversity protection by getting a coherent network around Irish waters. Irish waters are the most significant and important in the EU under the EU biodiversity strategy and this was the means outlined to get there.

Despite the Covid pandemic, we embarked on a public engagement process, travelling to meet fishers and communities in Killybegs and other coastal areas around the country during my time as Minister of State. We had some fantastic engagement, sometimes outdoors in car parks, and it was important that we did that. The one thing that the fishers had been saying to us was that they wanted these marine protected areas. They wanted to protect fish stocks for their own livelihoods but also for coastal communities. From a heritage perspective, these marine protected areas were hugely important. When we look at other countries that have developed marine protected areas, we see positive spillover effects, not just for areas where there are no-take zones but where there are management systems in place to take care of features or species that are within those designated areas.

Last year I attended the basking shark conference and met delegates from all over the world who were very impressed by the fact that the Irish Government had protected basking sharks in Irish waters and how that protection can connect into protections in the North Sea that have been delivered through the Scottish Government. There is an interconnectedness in all of our marine biodiversity and it is vitally important that we support that. The COP is starting in Brazil this week and we are seeing that marine biodiversity is under significant threat from various sources.

Unfortunately in the previous Government, we ran aground with the marine protected areas Bill for various reasons, primarily to do with drafting.This is significantly challenging legislation to deliver. Notwithstanding that, we had hoped the current Government would continue the trajectory the legislation has started. It had in it very significant elements regarding public participation. To do that correctly and design it in a way that communities and fishers, in particular, are involved in an iterative process that is ongoing and continues to ensure the effective management of our MPAs is hugely important. Unfortunately, that legislation did not make it. I had hoped the Government would continue that piece of work. It was 95% there, but I would love to see a renewed commitment from the Government. We have heard different soundings from the Minister of State and the Minister, when he was with us in committee, about the various approaches, whether they are going to renew this legislation or put an amendment into the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021. What I want to hear from the Minister of State today is what direction of travel the Government is going to take in delivering MPA legislation and to meet our international obligations for marine biodiversity.