Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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161. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 297 of 21 September 2021 and responses to recommendations 1 and 2 in the table, the dates on which the actions and decisions taken on the way the Government has as per recommendation 2, prioritized the introduction of separate and complementary legislation to complete the designation, regulation and management of marine protected areas and subsequently that marine protected areas are included in the National Marine Planning Framework and Marine Spatial Plan in tabular form; the status of the drafting of the heads of legislation for marine protected areas; when they will be published; and when pre-legislative scrutiny will be requested. [50037/21]

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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169. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 297 of 21 September 2021, the dates on which the actions and decisions taken on the way the Government has as per recommendation 2, prioritised the introduction of separate and complementary legislation to complete the designation, regulation and management of marine protected areas and subsequently that marine protected areas are included in the National Marine Planning Framework and Marine Spatial Plan in tabular form; the status of the drafting of the heads of the maritime area planning Bill; when they will be published; when pre-legislative scrutiny is envisaged; the legislation that is considered to be a priority by the Government for scrutiny and to be enacted by the Houses of the Oireachtas over the legislation for marine protected areas; when the Bill will come before the Houses of the Oireachtas; and the way in which Government has prioritised same. [49245/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 161 and 169 together.

The Programme for Government, published in June 2020, commits to developing comprehensive legislation for the identification, designation, and management of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This legislation is a priority for my Department. Work to draw up a General Scheme of this legislation is commencing this quarter. When drawing up the General Scheme, account will be taken of the findings of the report of the expert advisory group on Marine Protected Areas that was published in January 2021 as well as the outcome of the recent public consultation on the wider MPA process which ran from mid-February to the end of July. My Department received circa. 2,400 submissions from members of the public and other stakeholders during this consultation process. An independent review and analysis of these responses is being carried out in the autumn-winter 2021. The findings and conclusions from this study will be published in a detailed report that will also inform the development of the proposed legislation to support Ireland's network of MPAs into the future. Once this work is complete my Department will be better placed to give a time frame for finalising the General Scheme.