Measures to ease pressures on marine life 'ambitious', says O'Brien
Are The Bill, In Area By The To Protected Of Aims New Measures Of Proposed Marine Maritime The Protect 30% End Country's Decade Which The The To Addition Areas
A range of measures aimed at "tackling pressures" on marine life around Ireland includes zoning in on pollution, guidance for new offshore renewable energy, and tackling invasive species threatening sea life.
Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien and Heritage Minister Malcolm Noonan claimed the new package would help the country meet "ambitious" targets to protect biodiversity.
The new measures are in addition to the proposed Marine Protected Areas Bill, which aims to protect 30% of the country's maritime area by the end of the decade, but has been criticised by environmental organisations as not robust enough.
The EU's Marine Strategy Framework Directive legally compels member states to establish marine protected areas (MPAs), stipulating spatial protection measures be put in place to conserve biodiversity.
Campaigners have long called for MPAs to be expanded, with environmental coalition groups such as Fair Seas identifying 16 areas in Irish waters that should be designated as such to protect species such as sharks, rays, and puffins.
As well as the expansion of MPAs to cover 30% of our marine area by 2030, the Government's new measures include environmental guidance for offshore renewable energy; plans for an all-Ireland management strategy for non-indigenous species and invasive species in coastal and marine areas; and updated guidance on reducing underwater noise pollution.
Other elements include fully implementing the Single Use Plastics Directive and Circular Economy Act aimed at reducing litter and plastics in seas, which the Department of Housing said would allow the country reach the EU beach litter threshold value of 20 litter items per 100 metres.
Mr Noonan said: "Since I have taken on the ministerial role for biodiversity protection, we have increased our effective marine protected area coverage from 2.3% to 8.3 % with the proposed additional new Special Areas of Conservation in the Southern Canyons and Porcupine Shelf and we are on track to reach 10% in the coming months."
The new measures with even more marine protected areas will assist in the 30% protection by 2030 goal, he added.
Mr O'Brien said the measures are "key to meeting Ireland’s ambition for a clean, healthy, biologically diverse marine environment".
He added: "Through these concrete actions, we can tackle pressures on the marine environment and protect the many benefits we get from the sea."
It comes a month after Ireland was referred by the European Commission to Europe's highest court over its failure to protect lakes, rivers, and coasts from pollution, as well as failing to adequately tackle the problem of invasive species.
The proposed Marine Protected Areas Bill in its current form "falls very short" and is hampered by "weak and ambiguous language overall", environmental groups warned earlier this month.
The IEN, which includes groups such as the Irish Wildlife Trust, Birdwatch Ireland, and the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group, said the country is already around nine years late delivering on EU obligations to provide for marine protected areas (MPA), despite having one of the largest total areas when marine territory is also considered.
The new bill in its current guise fails in areas such as timelines for action, data collection, enforcement, resourcing, management, and monitoring, the IEN told an Oireachtas committee.