Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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457. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the curlew task force recommendations; the funding being made available in 2022 to address the concerning decline of the species; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63082/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Curlew is a pressing national conservation concern, having experienced a 96% decline in the breeding population in the last 30 years.

In early 2017, my Department's National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) established a Curlew Task Force. The Task Force adopted a collaborative approach to identify the policies and supports necessary to support breeding Curlew in Ireland. A wide range of stakeholder groups contributed and a series of 26 agreed recommendations was published in 2019.  Good progress has been made in terms of some of the recommendations but as is the case with challenging conservation issues, further progress could be made in other areas.

To establish how many pairs of Curlew remain breeding in Ireland and where they are, NPWS has completed two national surveys in recent years, the first of which was published in a journal called Wader Study.  The second survey was completed in 2021 and the data is being currently analysed and compiled.

Approximately €10m in funding has been dedicated to on-the-ground measures for Curlew over the past five years, predominantly through GLAS, which is administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

In addition to GLAS, the Curlew Conservation Programme, established in 2017 by NPWS,  operates across nine geographical areas. These combined efforts have supported overall productivity levels that should sustain a stable population of Curlew. However, in some of the nine areas productivity levels are still below the critical threshold.  

For the nine areas over the five years to date, a total of approximately €1.5m has been spent. In 2022, with the continued partnership of the Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, a budget of €0.5m has been allocated.

The Irish Breeding Curlew European Innovation Partnership operates in two other localities and this is funded by Irish Rural Development Programme, administered by both the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and Bird Watch Ireland.  The budget for this project is €1.1m.

A Memorandum of Understanding between NPWS and RSPB Northern Ireland was signed in 2021 to progress a feasibility study for curlew headstarting on an all-island basis. This is a necessary step in establishing whether headstarting can be a valuable tool in efforts to reverse the decline in Curlew.

Work by NPWS and UCD is progressing to support the analysis of satellite tracking data for breeding Curlew in Ireland, under a Masters Research Project, to better understand the landscapes that Curlew utilise.

In terms of the CAP Strategic Plan up until 2027, NPWS and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine are proposing to support Curlew and other breeding waders under a dedicated delivery framework, funded by the CAP and the national exchequer. This will include dedicated survey, nest protection and habitat enhancement across the country in various breeding wader hotspots.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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458. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the progress being made with the establishment of the National Parks and Wildlife Service's working to examine the hunting of birds of conservation concern; the actions that will be considered as part of the working group; the timeline for work to be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63083/21]

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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459. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the precautionary measures he will put in place as an interim management tool to ensure that sufficient protections are offered to bird species of conservation concern that are currently listed on the National Parks and Wildlife Service's open season order, and in advance of the finalisation of the working group on the hunting of birds of conservation. [63084/21]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 458 and 459 together.

My Department's National Parks and Wildlife Service is establishing a Working Group to build on my commitment to ensure that any hunting of birds of conservation concern is sustainable. The Group will meet in the coming weeks and will consider the short, medium and long-term actions required to achieve this.

In this context, the Group will make recommendations as appropriate in due course on whether the removal of certain species from the Open Seasons Order is required.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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460. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the measures that are in place to ensure that sites of high maritime biodiversity potential are protected from overdevelopment and impact under the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [63085/21]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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The Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 was been recently passed by the Oireachtas and was signed into law on 23 December 2021.

This legislation puts in place a comprehensive and coherent planning system for Ireland's entire maritime area. It sets out four key pillars on which our maritime planning system is to be based, namely: forward planning; the establishment of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, or MARA; development consent; and enforcement.

Forward planning happens through the National Marine Planning Framework and comprehensive sub-national planning. Ireland's National Marine Planning Framework (NMPF) was launched on 1 July 2021 and is Ireland’s first comprehensive marine spatial planning framework. The NMPF brings together all marine-based human activities for the first time, outlining the Government’s vision, objectives and marine planning policies for each marine activity.

The establishment of MARA will mean that we will have a new regulatory agency to consider applications for Maritime Area Consent (MAC); licence scheduled maritime usages; ensure compliance and enforcement of MACs, licences and offshore development consents; assume responsibility for the management and enforcement of the existing foreshore portfolio of leases and licences; and provide a nexus for inter-agency cooperation and collaboration.

The legislation provides for consent to development proposals by the Board and local authorities. The Board will examine the merits of projects and will balance their impacts against the relevant environmental objectives. Any project that may give rise to likely significant effects on the environment will need to be accompanied by an appropriate environmental and/or ecological report.

Comprehensive enforcement provisions are included to copper-fasten these new provisions.

The NMPF will be a key decision-making tool for regulatory authorities and policy makers into the future in a number of ways, including decisions on individual consent applications which will have to have regard to the provisions of the plan in the same way that terrestrial plans form part of the decision-making tool kit in the on-land planning process.

The legislation provides for spatial designations for specified areas and uses called Designated Maritime Area Plans, or DMAPs. DMAPs are prepared by a designated competent authority, underpinned by a mandatory Public Participation Statement and subject to Ministerial oversight and Oireachtas approval. Specific DMAPs may include allowed or restricted usages and mitigating or beneficial measures. A DMAP can be used for environmental purposes in order to safeguard certain areas of environmental concern - for example, to promote the safeguarding of fragile habitats.

It should be noted, however, that this new legislation is just one piece in a suite of maritime legislation, coming after the Maritime Jurisdiction Act 2021 and before forthcoming legislation on Marine Protected Areas.  Work has commenced on development of a General Scheme of a Bill to allow for designation of Marine Protected Areas and is this Bill is expected to come before the Oireachtas in 2022. This will in due course further underpin this new marine planning system while continuing to protect the State's most important asset, our maritime area.