I welcome interventions as they arise. It is easier for me to answer questions relevant to matters as we discuss them.
As a small nation and a relative newcomer to the area of marine science in Europe, we are proud of the fact that a European Commissioner will come to Ireland to acknowledge the influence this country and our organisation have had in promoting a broader vision of the reality of the marine resource as it has developed into the Green Paper. One of the important aspects of considering that resource is trying to place a value on it. Any student of economics will appreciate that much of the value of the marine resource escapes the collective capabilities of statisticians at the moment. A great number of marine activities in Ireland, in many other member states and at European level, fall between the existing pillars of statistical collection. That does a disservice to the sector and is an impediment to its prioritisation. We have made our best effort at European level to quantify the market place as it exists at the moment, to which end we have published Marine Industries Global Market Analysis and a report on the reality of the Irish ocean economy in its diversity. Copies are available to committee members from the secretariat.
Arising from the Irish Presidency of the EU, we advised Government that it was in the national interest to prioritise, at a European level, marine research across the seven or eight main areas that have been structured for European support for research. We did that in the knowledge of the evolving picture in Ireland and our experience of working at European level over the past decade. We are glad to report that the Government took on board our advice and was successful in negotiating the ingredient within the framework programme at EU level whereby the marine would be treated as an important horizontal focal area for research management at a European level, across all the activity areas.
It is vital when planning for the future that science responds to our national needs but has a happy and convenient mechanism for partnership with science at the European level. Ireland is well positioned to take that opportunity in the next seven years. This approach to the planning of science appealed to the Commission, in the context of a maritime policy, in the way it connected with the market and embraced the diversity of existing businesses and in the opportunities to which it can give rise in the future, while recognising that it cannot exist in isolation.
The ocean amounts to 70% of our planet. Having heard this week how topical the climate change agenda is, it is vital we understand that the ocean is the biggest driver of our planetary climate systems. The area west of Ireland, as I will point out later on, is an exceptionally important one in the European context. A global market of more than €4 trillion, of which more than 50% is made up by the service sector, 30% by natural resources, such as harvesting and growing seafood, 12% by manufacturing, 1% by education and 1% by research provides a quantum within which maritime policy can be positioned.
In terms of bringing forward plans whereby science can stand up to the challenge of supporting society's opportunity to develop that resource and manage it wisely, Ireland is at the fore at European level. The main ingredients of the plan at national level are summarised in the Government's Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation 2006-2013, which was published in June 2006. It summarises the main ingredients for a national strategy from 2007 to 2013 set out in the Marine Institute publication, Sea Change — A Marine Knowledge, Research and Innovation Strategy for Ireland, which identifies and targets what needs to be done in transforming, and supporting the transformation of, existing businesses, in supporting the governance challenges associated with managing the marine resource, in taking forward new opportunities in areas such as health food, biotechnology, functional foods and ocean energy and in continuing critical investment in infrastructure.
That is the backdrop to Ireland's role in the development of the maritime Green Paper. An Irish expert group from the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources will have contributed to the drafting of the Green Paper, along with member state representatives from all countries and the Commission.
I will go through the Green Paper, highlight its seven main ingredients, draw the committee's attention to some of the early high priority areas suggested therein and describe the national process to prepare Ireland's response. A main approach taken by the Green Paper is to ask questions of the European Union and its member states rather than to prescribe answers. The first of the paper's seven main chapters asks why a European maritime policy is needed, the second addresses the challenge to retain Europe's leadership in sustainable maritime development and the third deals with maximising the quality of life issues arising in coastal regions in particular. The fourth main chapter deals with providing the tools to manage relations with the oceans, the fifth addresses the issue of maritime governance, the sixth relates to reclaiming Europe's maritime heritage and reaffirming its maritime identity and the seventh outlines the Commission's proposals on the way forward.
Returning to the matter of first principles and why there should be a maritime policy, it may surprise committee members that half of Europe's land is under the ocean. This provides a significant drive. Putting it in a broader context, while 70% of the globe is submerged, 90% of land over which Ireland has sovereignty — more than 200 million acres — is under water. The many internal drivers for the development of a European policy are summarised in our powerpoint presentation, but there are also external drivers, particularly the evolution of governance mechanisms in jurisdictions like the United States of America, Australia and Japan, which have mature maritime policies, and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, under which Ireland's territorial claims will be adjudicated. The convention will be important in the near future because it will present opportunities at national and European levels. In the Commission's view, now is the right time to ask whether a maritime policy is required.
Regarding the retention of Europe's leadership in sustainable maritime development, the Green Paper points out the reality of the maritime economy, the history of Europe as a leader in shipbuilding, exploration, fishing developments and other maritime activities, and asks whether Europe is still a leader, can it continue in that role and what must it do. The paper emphasises the importance of the marine environment and its protection for reasons relating to quality of life and the sustainability of relevant industries. The paper poses the challenge that science must face at European and member state levels, namely, to support the ambition of the paper, the Lisbon Agenda and other pertinent policies.
The Green Paper poses questions on maximising the quality of life in coastal regions. Given that a significant proportion of Europe's population lives within 50 km of the sea, how well is it positioned to manage the attractiveness of living on the coast and to retain the value of living in such regions while balancing the pressures placed on the very thing people want to live beside and appreciate?
I draw the committee's attention to the map on the screen which shows northern Europe from a southern perspective. This challenges our ability to look upside down, although not intentionally. As we hear about studies of climate change we have become familiar with the ozone holes above the North Pole and Antarctica. How will we notice and experience changes in climate? Media reports this week have drawn our attention to this issue. We will experience flood events, more extreme weather events and changes in the distribution of species. When one considers that 70% of the planet is under the ocean, that 90% of Ireland is ocean territory west of the country and that the biggest influence on European climate is the ocean west of Ireland and when one appreciates that the cold northern ocean species and the warm southern ocean species meet on a line west of Ireland the geographic importance of Ireland and the area west of us to understanding the rate at which climate change is happening becomes clear. When one considers the actual impact as measured through the fish species and the environment, we see that Ireland is in a very important position and has a very significant opportunity to be a global player in this science in the future. That is real knowledge economy action for Ireland in the future.
The graph members can now see shows the Gulf Stream. This is a warm water current which comes from the Caribbean, flows by Ireland within a hand's reach of our shore and continues past Norway. It goes down deep. One of the surprising aspects of the ocean is that the same water can move in opposite directions at different depths. While surface water is moving from south to north the deep water layers can be moving in a different direction.
