Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, to the House.

Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)
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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.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome students from Sacred Heart Secondary School in Cork who are guests of Seanadóir Noel O'Donovan. They were finalists in the certified Irish Angus competition and they met the Minister for agriculture, the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste. Lucy, Ellen, Ciara, Niamh and their teacher Mary are most welcome to Seanad Éireann. I note that Senator O'Donovan had a question in about the Sacred Heart Secondary School and the renovation and construction work, so I will make sure we get around to that Commencement matter in the coming days.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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I offer my warm words of welcome to the students from Cork. As somebody who served in this House for quite some time, I will say that the Chair kept the good wine until last. The students have come to the rarefied place where things get debated in a fulsome way.

I thank Senator Noonan for raising this important issue. I know of his personal interest and his time in the Department, and how much work he did on that. I have had an opportunity to review it. The Senator was a long way along and significant credit will be due to him when we finally get a legislative framework in place that seeks to address the MPA legislation. I am pleased to have an opportunity to update all Senators on the Government's progress towards the introduction of marine protected areas legislation. This is a key step in protecting our seas and ensuring a healthy, productive and sustainably used marine environment. On foot of the transfer of the marine environment functions from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the Department of Climate, Energy and Environment, the Department has undertaken a review to identify the optimum legislative vehicle to designate effectively and manage MPAs.

The Government decision was to try to bring the whole marine function under one Minister of State, and I was fortunate enough to be given that opportunity. One option was to continue with a stand-alone Bill, creating an entirely new and separate statutory designation process in the Irish marine area. The Senator advanced the legislative elements of that very well. The other option considered was to align the designation of MPAs with the provisions of the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021, which provides for forward planning, occupancy management and enforcement within a maritime area. In determining which option is optimal, consideration has been given to the opportunity to consolidate marine legislation and not duplicate or reproduce similar procedures in a separate Act.

We have to be mindful of the most efficient way to ensure we meet Ireland's target of protecting 30% of the maritime area by 2030. Anything I have done since coming to office has been aimed at trying to achieve our stated ambition of designating 30% of the maritime area protected by 2030. For me, it was about trying to ensure that we get there as quickly as possible, through an ecologically coherent network of MPAs, and achieving this by empowering us to use the existing spatial planning tool, namely, the DMAP process of designated marine area plans and that is currently under consideration. MPAs could fit well, I believe, into the DMAP structures and their inclusion in the MPA, if decided, would further embed environmental matters in planning legislation, supporting sustainable planning of human activity in our seas, thereby integrating the ecosystem-based approach to management of our maritime areas. Accordingly, it is intended to bring a proposal for Government's approval shortly on the preferred approach. I have a view, which I have expressed and with which the Senator is familiar, but it will ultimately be a decision of the Government. I am hopeful that this will progress in the very near future and I expect that it will be at Cabinet before Christmas.However, I assure Senator Noonan that the extensive work that has already been undertaken on drafting, and he was very much part of drafting that marine protected area legislation, will certainly not go to waste. It certainly informed me along the way and continues to inform our officials.

On the legislation - regardless of whether it will be an amendment to the Maritime Area Planning Act or the continuation of the existing, if that is what is ultimately decided - I assure the Senator that if it is a bolt-on piece to the Maritime Area Planning Act, it will include: extensive and meaningful public and stakeholder engagement; the identification of species, habitats and ecosystem services that are at risk and which require protection and-or restoration - an ecosystem service being a benefit achieved from the environment; the identification of optimal locations to protect these features and designation of marine protected areas with clear conservation objectives; the appointment of a management authority for MPAs; a requirement for management plans for MPAs; a requirement for bodies authorising, licensing or permitting an activity in an MPA to have regard for its conservation objectives; and, where necessary, the regulation of harmful activities in an MPA, with associated offences and penalties as appropriate.

To help inform the future designation of MPAs once legislation is in place, two ecological sensitivity analyses were commissioned from an independent expert MPA

advisory group. These studies of the western Irish Sea and the Celtic Sea identified possible suitable areas for potential MPAs in these parts of Ireland's maritime area. They also developed methods, approaches and standards for identifying such suitable areas. Such analyses of our western and northern maritime area are planned in the future. Additionally, EU LIFE funding of €15 million has been obtained to aid in developing Ireland's MPA network. The State will add a further €10 million in matched funding to this, making a total project fund of €25 million over the period from 2024 to 2033. The MPA LIFE Ireland project and ongoing wider MPA process will ensure the codesign, development and roll-out of MPAs as well as effective ecosystem-based management.

Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)
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I welcome that update. The word "codesign" is critically important here. It is not to say that we had not made significant progress. Notwithstanding the legislative piece, we got close to the 10% strict protection through the east coast and seas off Wexford special protection areas, SPAs, for marine birds. That was hugely important. Separately, the two ObSERVE programmes in mapping the ocean and marine biodiversity have been hugely significant, so I welcome the update. I am not sure if it is the correct approach, but I hope it is. I welcome some of the measures that the Minister of State has put in there and that he has given acceptance to what was in the previous Bill using the DMAPs approach. Critically, the main thing is that the State will get there as quickly as possible now. We have had significant delay in drafting. This is not through anyone's fault; these things happen. However, it is critically important that we meet our 30% by 2030 targets given the challenges that our marine biodiversity is facing, but again I welcome the update.

Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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It is clear that our objectives are aligned. We know the importance of designation of at least 30% by 2030. We come at it for the right reasons. The Senator has rightly identified that fishermen and women in particular recognise the importance of protecting these habitats. We see scientific information coming this month from ICES, which sees significant cuts to our fishing opportunities for next year, particularly in the pelagic stocks. For example, mackerel is 70%, 40% for blue whiting and 20% for boarfish and equally for nephrops up to 40%, which is a 38% of a reduction. That clearly shows that if we just take it on fishing alone, let alone the other elements that we want to protect, it is under enormous pressure. By identifying suitable locations to protect and preserve what is an important feature of our maritime space, that is what it is about. I do not have an ideological hang-up in terms of what the most appropriate ways are other than to get there as quickly as possible. By using the existing legislative basis that is there in the Maritime Area Planning Act, which has been tried and tested in terms of the DMAP that has been organised off the south-east coast for offshore renewables, the same principle can be applied. We have to be mindful that whatever legislative approach we put in place is not subject to further challenge, particularly in the courts. The route we are going has the capacity to do that. If we can get there, it is about the end result rather than the means by which we achieve it.