Deputy Thomas Pringle has said maritime area planning should be plan-led and not developer-led.
Speaking on the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021 in the Dáil on Thursday, Deputy Pringle said the bill is “very necessary to ensure that the maritime area will have some sort of control on the development of the resources that are there, and also in the preservation of the vital environmentally important areas as well which is probably more important at this stage.
“Our record of protecting the environment has been pretty poor,” he said.
The Killybegs-based deputy noted that while marine planning is currently developer-led, the intention is to move to a plan-led system.
Deputy Pringle said: “This is a very laudable aspiration and is where we should be heading but we just don’t have a very good record of it in Ireland.”
He asked whether marine developers would be supplying environmental impact statements for their developments and said he favoured regulations implemented around Natura bays and fish farming, which allow for the department and the marine institute to assess projects and inform developers of the factors they must take cognizance of in their plans.
Deputy Pringle said: “That’s where we should be going with all developments in the future,” adding, “I’ve said this numerous times: I have yet to see an EIS that says that a development shouldn’t go ahead, or that a development is too detrimental to the environment to allow it to go ahead, because the person paying for it is going to get the answers they want.”
He said he is concerned as to how marine environment planning will progress even with the bill.
For example, he said, only a small percentage of Ireland’s marine environment, about 2.13%, is protected as Marine Protected Areas, geographically defined areas where a limit has been placed on human activity or offshore industry to protect marine habitats.
Calling MPAs a key tool in ensuring the conservation of marine ecosystems, Deputy Pringle said expanding the MPA network should be done in tandem with the bill.
He said: “I would be afraid that damaging human activities, pollution, biodiversity loss and climate change will be left till the end after a lot more of that damage has already been done.”
And he noted that fishery harbours and fish farming don’t seem to be a part of the bill.
The deputy said: “How could a bill be drafted that is supposed to deal with the marine environment and leave out fishing ports and fish farming? While there appears to be some mapping of consent for fish farms in the bill and through the environmental process, how much does it integrate fish farming into the overall marine environment protection? I think that’s vitally important.”
Deputy Pringle said: “I think there is an opportunity to do this right, so let’s take the time and have a genuine plan-led development system in place.”
