Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 9 April 2024
620. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to explain the delay in publishing and introducing the Marine Protected Areas Bill, and to set out the impact this delay will have on the development of offshore wind energy projects. [13950/24]
View answerThe general scheme of the Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) Bill was published in December 2022. Following the scrutiny of the Joint Oireachtas Committee, my Department has been working in close collaboration with parliamentary drafters to develop this Bill. While it was initially hoped to publish it in 2023, the legal and technical complexity associated with this ground breaking legislation has meant that drafting has taken longer than anticipated. However, drafting is now at an advanced stage and I expect that it will be ready for publication very soon.
I do not expect that the timing of publication of the Bill will have an impact on development of offshore wind energy projects. My Department has worked closely with colleagues in the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to enable the MPA and offshore renewable energy processes to occur in parallel with one another.
As part of this, I have commissioned two important environmental sensitivity analyses by the independent MPA Advisory Group, re-established on an administrative basis, in order to identify potentially suitable areas for MPAs in advance of the legislation's enactment. The first of these studies focused on the Irish Sea, and was completed and published last year. A second such ecological sensitivity analysis by the MPA Advisory Group, focusing on the Celtic Sea off southern Ireland, is currently under way and is anticipated to be completed by early summer. By identifying features that need to be protected and spatial locations in which they occur, these studies help to provide confidence to the offshore renewable sector and, at the same time, identify suitable areas within which MPAs could potentially be taken forward in the future.
