Malcolm Byrne (Wicklow-Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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742. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his position with regard to Ireland’s membership of the Antarctic Treaty; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46784/24]

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Antarctic Treaty System consists of several different international legal instruments. These are the 1959 Antarctic Treaty; the 1980 Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; the 1972 Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals; and the Madrid Protocol on Environmental Protection 1991. Each of these has a different focus and set of requirements on participating States.

An inter-departmental group will determine what level of participation is appropriate for Ireland in terms of the which parts of the treaty system we should accede to and to identify the structures and associated resource requirements necessary for such participation.

To date, my Department's focus has been on ensuring that threatened species, habitats, and ecosystem services in our own maritime area and the wider North-East Atlantic Region are protected. With this in mind, the priority has been the drafting of the Marine Protected Areas (MPA) Bill.

Work on the MPA Bill complements our continued work on a national and transboundary basis under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive; the OSPAR Regional Sea Convention for the Protection of the Environment of the North-East Atlantic; and the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's Global Biodiversity Framework Targets.