Weak legislation and insufficient funding will hamper protection of Ireland's marine habitats

Environmental coalition FairSeas will tell the committee many existing marine protected areas lack the management measures needed to achieve meaningful conservation results.

Weak language and insufficient funding will hamper proposed legislation to protect Ireland’s seas, species and marine habitats, an Oireachtas committee is to be told.

The Committee of Fisheries and Maritime Affairs will hear from representatives of four environmental organisations during pre-legislative scrutiny of the Maritime Area Planning Bill 2026 on Tuesday.

The bill aims to designate and effectively manage marine protected areas covering 30% of Ireland’s seas by 2030, with 10% under strict protection. Less than 10% of Ireland’s maritime area is currently protected.

Its provisions would identify species, habitats and ecosystem services requiring protection or restoration, establish clear conservation objectives and regulate harmful activities, with associated offences and penalties. The Government approved the bill in July, with marine protected areas planned for the Irish Sea, Celtic Sea and Atlantic Ocean.

A marine protected area is a geographically defined area of sea protected to achieve conservation objectives.

The Government says marine protected areas can benefit the environment and the economy by safeguarding areas vital to marine ecosystems and ensuring fishing, tourism and other marine activities are sustainable. This helps preserve biodiversity and support long-term human wellbeing.

Environmental coalition FairSeas will tell the committee many existing marine protected areas lack the management measures needed to achieve meaningful conservation results.

While welcoming the 30% protection target, it will argue wording requiring the minister merely to “endeavour” to achieve it is too weak.

FairSeas will also welcome the €25m allocated for marine protected areas but warn it is insufficient as a long-term solution.

Marine policy officer at FairSeas Iseult Cambay said this legislation would “shape how Ireland approaches marine conservation for decades to come and needs to be more than aspirational".

“The building blocks are there; however, the forthcoming legislation needs more in terms of ambition and clarity about how marine protected areas will work in practice,” she said.

“We need to live up to both the letter and the spirit of our 2030 commitments. We need to go beyond simply designating 30% of our seas as MPAs and ensure the sites are of sufficient quality and are effectively managed to deliver positive outcomes,” Ms Cambay added.

The committee will also hear concerns about marine protection from 19-year-old Flossie Donnelly of Flossie and the Beach Cleaners.

“We can draw lines on a map, give an area a protected status, and announce that we have achieved our targets, but what does that mean for the fish, the seabirds, the marine habitats and everything else living beneath the surface,” she will say.

Ms Donnelly will say she and her volunteers have found dead seals and dolphins with “wounds that appeared to have been caused by gunshots” during beach cleans along Ireland’s west coast.

“We also regularly find shotgun cartridges on our coastline. These are incredibly upsetting discoveries, particularly when we know that these marine animals are supposed to be protected by law,” she will add.

She will warn ocean health cannot be measured solely by “how much of our seas we designate as protected”. 

“It must be measured by what is actually happening beneath the surface,” she will say.

Ms Donnelly will say she does not want to discover in 10 years that protection targets have been met but “our marine life is disappearing".