Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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352. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government to detail the tender process for the provision of an update to the 2014 guidance to manage risk to marine mammals from man-made sound sources in Irish waters; the timeframe for completion of this work; if this is being expedited to reflect the increase in noise generating activities associated with offshore renewables; how and when public consultation will take place within this process; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41009/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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There is currently no tender process underway for the provision of an update to the 2014 Guidance to Manage the Risk to Marine Mammals, nor is one planned.

The Marine Institute funded a project through its Research for Policy Awards 2023 entitled GOMOREUS - Guidance on Managing offshore Renewable Energy Underwater Sound. The project is being delivered by University College Cork (UCC) MaREI Centre. UCC MaREI has been actively involved in research and development projects using active and passive acoustics for the past 20 years. This includes numerous investigative studies undertaken by the Marine Ecology Group using passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) to assess marine mammal populations and movements. The GOMOREUS project will develop practical, integrated, and harmonised guidance to inform the management of continuous and impulsive underwater noise for Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) development in Irish waters, in compliance with EU legislation such as the Habitats Directive and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

The National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) will use the outputs from the GOMOREUS project to update its 2014 Guidance to Manage the Risk to Marine Mammals. Stakeholder consultation will be conducted before the publication of the final updated guidance, expected to commence in Q2 2025. Every effort is being made to publish the updated guidance in as timely a manner as possible, while ensuring the quality of the product and consultation needed to ensure its effectiveness.