Marine Bill will protect 30% of Irish waters and encourage development of offshore windfarms

Ireland’s commitment to protect 30 per cent of its maritime area by 2030 has taken a significant step forward following Government approval of new legislation to facilitate designations of vast swathes of the Irish coastline.

Following Cabinet backing of marine protected areas (MPAs) legislation on Tuesday, Minister of State for Heritage Malcolm Noonan said it would enable 30 per cent of Irish marine waters to be protected by 2030.

Speaking before travelling to the UN biodiversity conference in Montreal, Canada, Mr Noonan said: “This is fantastic and much-anticipated news for everyone who cares about our oceans, our coastline and our treasured island environment.”

“Ireland’s marine environment is rich in biodiversity, providing huge benefits for our economy, our health and wellbeing, for coastal communities, food provision and climate adaptation. It also offers enormous renewable energy potential for our country and our people, which this Government is committed to harnessing,” he said.

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“We started from a low base of 2.3 per cent marine protection in 2020, but since I became Minister we have more than tripled the overall size of protected areas in the sea to 8.3 per cent, and are on track to reach 10 per cent by the middle of next year,” he confirmed.

The Bill puts Ireland “in an excellent position to deliver on its ambition for protected areas across 30 per cent of our maritime area – that’s twice the size of our land mass – by 2030″, he said.

Government approval for the MPA legislation, as well as new sites protected for biodiversity conservation at sea under the European nature directives, “shows by working together we can address the pressures we put on the ocean and its natural resources, and build a better ocean future for the benefit of people and nature, now and into the future”, Mr Noonan said.

The Bill is designed to deliver a framework for designating and effectively managing protected areas in seas and ocean, while helping to address the biodiversity and climate crises. It is understood there were tensions within Government about where MPAs might be located and equally where offshore wind farms might be allowed – with pressure from the EU to accelerate offshore renewables under the REPowerEU initiative forged in response to the energy crisis.

Work on the Bill was informed by an expert group report on MPAs, and the outcomes of public participation and consultation. This was to ensure practical and effective area-based conservation action and management measures are deployed to protect Ireland’s highly valued marine biodiversity and other ecosystem features.

It is the first time a “participatory approach” will feature in environmental legislation bringing citizens, business sectors – including fisheries and aquaculture – and coastal communities inside the process to facilitate MPAs backed by effective management recommendations. Critically, this will allow activities that are compatible with what is being protected to continue.

“This will contribute to Ireland achieving very high standards of environmental protection and sustainable use that are required under the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive,” Mr Noonan noted.

Two new special areas of conservation have also been selected under the EU Habitats Directive, totalling a combined 3 million hectares; one off the northwest coast and another off the south. Both were selected due to the presence of the internationally-protected deepwater reef habitat, a unique ecosystem that supports a wide range of marine species.

Work is also advanced on the selection of a number of internationally important sites for birds – special protection areas (SPAs) – under the EU Birds Directive, Mr Noonan said. Ireland is required under the directive to designate SPAs for the protection of listed rare and vulnerable species, regularly occurring migratory species and wetlands of international importance.