Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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56. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the position regarding the publication of the marine protected areas legislation, with an anticipated timeline; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36076/24]

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I want to ask the Minister of State about the marine protected areas legislation. It is key unfinished work that we have in front of us as a Government. I would like to see it completed, not just from the point of view of the environmental NGOs, which are looking for progress on this, as is anybody with an interest in the marine, but, also, as we are developing our offshore wind, it is critically important that the jewels in the crown of our offshore environment are protected in that context. I would like an update and timeline, if possible.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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As an island nation, our seas and our ocean are crucial for Ireland, supporting our economy, international trade, our energy supply and communications systems, as well as our climate, environment, cultural traditions, heritage, health and wellbeing. The Maritime Area Planning Act 2021 sets the underpinning process for planning, consenting and regulation of certain maritime activities and ensures that all projects are carefully considered and subject to appropriate environmental assessment. To complement this, it is important that Ireland also has modern environmental legislation to establish appropriate area-based environmental protection.

The marine strategy framework directive provides a binding legal obligation to establish marine protected areas, MPAs. It stipulates that spatial protection measures, such as MPAs, shall be put in place to protect biodiversity as part of a national programmes of measures, to contribute to the achievement of good environmental status. The programme for Government in 2020 included a commitment to expand Ireland's MPA network to 10% of its maritime area as soon as is practical, aiming for 30% coverage by 2030. These commitments are in line with the EU biodiversity strategy and the OSPAR North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy 2030.

Substantial progress has been made on drafting the marine protected areas Bill. Given its potential impact, both as environmental protection legislation and on marine stakeholders, it requires careful drafting, since it is a complex Bill, with ongoing legal advice required throughout the process. An initial comprehensive draft of the MPA Bill was produced in late May this year. However, some issues arose in the process of interdepartmental consultation which require further consideration. An agreement was reached with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to establish an interdepartmental drafting group to address the issues arising. This group worked over the summer period and further drafting instructions have been issued to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. I recognise that the office will need to consider these instructions carefully and it is not excluded that further points of clarification or questions will emerge.

I might as well be honest that it has been frustrating for both the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and me. We are grateful to the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel and the Office of the Attorney General. I intend to try to get this Bill published in the lifetime of this Government. I know many stakeholders are waiting for this to be published. I will come back in a supplementary reply on some of the additional work that is ongoing.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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I thank the Minister of State. We are great friends, both inside and outside this Chamber, so I hope he does not mind if I put the boot in a little on this. That was not really much of an answer. The clock is ticking on this Government, whether we are talking about November, December, Valentine's Day, or March 2025. There is not a great deal of time and this is key legislation. Under those programme for Government commitments, we have seen an expansion of marine protected areas. We are on course for that 10% within the lifetime of this Government, which is huge, from the base that we came from, but we need to have that underpinned. The Minister of State has done brilliant work on national parks too. That also needs to be underpinned by legislation. Simply writing a designation on a map, unless we understand in a comprehensive legal way what the protections offered for those areas are, does not amount to a great hill of beans. I will push the Minister of State again. When are we likely to see this? When are we likely to be able to cast our eye over it and at least begin the process of legislating?

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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The Deputy is correct in saying that we have moved from 2.4% at the outset of this Government to 10% of waters under strict protection as special protection areas, SPAs, for marine birds, including the east coast and the seas off Wexford, which is the largest SPA in the history of the State. I have established a marine advisory group, which is a high-level scientific group, which has overseen the ecological sensitivity analysis of the Irish Sea and Celtic Sea. Both of those were published in 2022 and 2024. In each case, these comprehensive analyses consisted of scientific evaluation, which is critically important to the MPA process. This work is done. It is not to say that nothing has been done. Significant work has been completed. Notwithstanding that, as I said earlier, it is frustrating from my perspective. We had expected not just to have it published but perhaps enacted at this stage. It is a complex Bill, as the Deputy will appreciate. We are making every effort. I meet my teams weekly. I met them this morning to get an update. It is with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel. We are waiting for its final drafting instructions. We have done other significant work. We will be launching an MPA LIFE project, with €24 million of funding, to complement that. We have worked to support fisheries and the ambition they want to set out for marine protected areas. We have already brought in the basking shark protection. Every effort is being made. I cannot give the Deputy a date for this. I wish I could. We are making every effort to get this published as soon as possible.

Marc Ó Cathasaigh (Waterford, Green Party)
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We have a range of competing interests that are looking at our offshore area. It should be mentioned that we do not have a senior Minister for the marine even though nine tenths of our actual territorial area is the marine. We do not want a Klondike situation here. We have huge growth in offshore renewables, which is welcome. We have that designated maritime area plan, DMAP, process, which has been good, and the creation of the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA. These are important steps, but we need to make sure that one thing does not cut across the other. Similarly, I think a positive story will be told about how we marry our fishing communities with offshore renewables and marine protected areas, but we need to help people to understand that. I will make an appeal over the Minister of State's head, if I may, and ask the senior Minister, Deputy O'Brien, if we can start knocking heads on this and make sure that this happens. I know a number of stakeholders are involved but this is important legislation and I would personally like to see it get across the line.

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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I fully support Deputy Ó Cathasaigh. As the Minister of State knows, this is an issue that we have raised regularly in the committee. "Frustrating" is probably an understatement. We were led to believe at an earlier stage that the legislation was nearly ready to go at the end of last year. Now, we are hearing that it has not even been completed. Even if it is published before Christmas, it will not be passed until next year. We then have a year to two years for the designation process.

All the while, there will be efforts to progress much-needed offshore wind energy. The consequence of the lag between the planning regime for offshore wind and marine protected areas is the potential for conflict, judicial review and much avoidable delay. This is an area in which there is a lot of cross-party consensus for getting this done. I ask the Minister and Minister of State to publish this as early as possible so we can start getting to the serious work of getting it through the committee and the Oireachtas. Otherwise, there will be delays in the delivery of offshore wind, damage to our marine protected areas and, as Deputy Ó Cathasaigh rightly pointed out, what could be a success story about the revitalisation of our fishing communities could be undermined. I ask the Minister of State to please work with us on this matter and get it through to the House as quickly as possible.

Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)
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I assure the Deputies that there is no lack of political will. It is our utmost priority. I appreciate the support from the committee and across the House. That is not to say there is any conflict between offshore renewables and marine biodiversity. As I said, the ecological sensitivity analyses have been conducted for the Celtic Sea and the Irish Sea. They will continue to inform processes around designation and areas fit for offshore renewables. Separately, I mentioned the two SPAs, in particular the largest in the history of the Irish State, the seas off Wexford, which have brought us closer to the 10% strict protection, as set out in the programme for Government. We are there in that regard. The MPA legislation is the last piece of the jigsaw. We want it to be published. I would love for it to get through the Houses of the Oireachtas in the lifetime of this Government but that is not something I am in control of. I stress that every effort is being made. I am also conscious that when I met fishing communities three or four years ago, they wanted this from a heritage perspective to protect fisheries. I met fishers in Tralee Bay a number of weeks ago. They want to get on with projects, which is why there is the MPA LIFE project. We will make every effort to get this MPA legislation published. Other work is ongoing and an important layer also.