An Oireachtas committee has said that greater consultation with the fishing industry must be “facilitated” to provide better planning around marine protected areas (MPAs) and offshore wind farms.
In a report on biodiversity loss, the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action says that the expansion of the marine renewables industry in Ireland “must be led in a climate-friendly manner”.
It says “the provision of best practice guidelines supported by legislation would ensure robust and consistent site assessments and risk analyses” in relation to offshore wind development.
It also notes that the lack of cohesive approach to data gathering and monitoring of the marine environment is conflicting with the increased level of interest from wind farm companies.
The points were raised in its report, published on Thursday, highlighting the poor state of biodiversity on a global level, along with issues that are specific to Ireland.
The report’s five key themes include loss of biodiversity in marine environments and future potential for these areas; biodiversity and climate; how degradation of biodiversity occurred in Ireland; agriculture and land use; and how to change the downward trend through monitoring and research, and policy and legislative change.
Committee chair Brian Leddin said the report sets out 75 recommendations which include a call to review the Arterial Drainage Act, and recommendations around the need for prioritising the designation of MPAs.
The recommendations also refer to the “immediate development and implementation of management plans for existing and future designated MPAs to restore biodiversity and prevent further damage”, he said.
The committee took submissions and held consultations with stakeholders last year. Irish Whale and Dolphin Group co-ordinator Dr Simon Berrow said that “currently the fishing industry is fearful of the future with MPAs and offshore wind farms”, due to lack of consultation.
The report says the committee “agreed that greater consultation with the fishing industry must be facilitated in order to provide better planning around MPAs and wind farms”.
The report says the committee also noted the “lack of inclusion of MPAs in the heads of the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021, and acknowledged stakeholder concerns that the designation of MPAs is currently not on any legislative footing”.
“Stakeholders highlighted that the lack of legislation around MPAs is currently the biggest issue and that the designation of MPAs along with “sensitivity mapping” is essential to ensure that the development of offshore renewable energy is steered away from more sensitive areas of the marine environment”, it said.
“The marine renewable energy industry in Ireland is expanding rapidly, and Dr Berrow highlighted that while coastal areas provide great opportunity for renewable energy, appropriate planning is needed “to mitigate negative impacts on marine species and habitats” and that this could also be an opportunity to restore and enhance biodiversity,” it said.
“The committee agreed that biodiversity should lead future planning and projects, and that projects should be carefully assessed to best avoid any negative environmental impacts such as what occurred following the incorrect placement of wind farms on peatlands in Donegal,”it says
The committee’s report also highlights the lack of cohesive approach to data gathering and monitoring of the marine environment, which is “conflicting with the increased level of interest from wind farm companies”.
“Dr Berrow stated that a strategy that can achieve objectives that would be in the interest of everyone, including the marine environment, would be worth considering and highlighted the illogical nature of the current system used for surveying sites for wind farms,” it says
“One company will go out one day and on the following day, the same team of observers on the same vessel will go and survey the site next door to it. There is significant duplication of effort and significant increase in disturbance,” Dr Berrow told the committee.
“I appreciate that there is commercial competition, so they need all their own data. Where does the State obligation begin and end and where does that of the private companies begin and end? We suggest that if there were some data sets that were common to all and could be shared, one would not need to go and do it again,” he said
The report says the committee agreed that “while the marine renewables sector is an essential aspect of Ireland’s climate measures and future emissions targets, it is important that the correct approach be taken with construction to ensure the least negative impact for marine environments”.
The report is available here