Press release
New measures to tackle pollution, biodiversity loss and climate impacts on Ireland’s seas
From Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Darragh O’Brien, and the Minister of State for Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan, have announced a programme of measures designed to target the pressures on Ireland’s marine environment. The programme consists of a broad range of actions with commitments across government departments to ensure the sustainable use of our seas, and restore degraded ecosystems and species.
Commenting Minister O’Brien said:
"This Programme is key to meeting Ireland’s ambition for a clean, healthy, biologically diverse marine environment. Through these concrete actions, we can tackle pressures on the marine environment and protect the many benefits we get from the sea. These measures are solid and well thought through - built on extensive cooperation across many government departments and marine stakeholders."
The Programme of Measures is a central element of Ireland’s commitment to ensuring Europe’s marine waters are clean and healthy. As well as national measures the programme includes co-operative measures with other EU Member States and the UK to tackle pollution, including marine litter, entering our seas and to protect our valuable ecosystems.
Welcoming the publication of the Programme of Measures, Minister of State Malcolm Noonan stated:
"We have to protect and restore biodiversity in our seas over the coming years. 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 implementation of this programme – with even more marine protected areas – help us meet our ambitious goals for nature, conservation and biodiversity, including the achievement of 30% protection by 2030."
Among the actions set out in the Programme are actions to:
The Programme incorporates specific measures aimed at improving the state of marine biodiversity. This include ongoing measures to reduce the impacts of incidental bycatch; revision of both the Wildlife Acts and wildlife watching codes of practice; and increased spatial protection measures.
The suite of actions developed under the programme were developed following a 2020 assessment of the health of our seas. This assessment, which used the latest scientific evidence, identified key areas where environmental targets for Ireland’s marine environment were both being reached and not reached. Targets to achieve good environmental status were identified in relation to biodiversity, seafloor systems and pressures due to commercial fisheries.
As part of Ireland’s commitments under the national Climate Action plan, the Programme includes actions to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These include specific measures such as the development of Nature-Based Solutions and the expansion of Marine Protected Areas to consider both carbon storage and the resilience of ecosystems to the effects of climate change and ocean acidification. National marine climate indicators and a pilot national monitoring and assessment programme are being developed to assess the effects of climate change and ensure Ireland contributes to EU and North-East Atlantic goals.
Ireland’s formal marine environmental programme of measures has been developed utilising an all-of-government approach to improve the health of Ireland’s Seas, while ensuring the sustainable use of our marine resources.
The programme comprises a suite of actions targeting biodiversity, non-indigenous species, pollution, underwater noise, marine litter and the impacts of increased human activity.
A commitment to develop Nature-Based Solutions in coastal and marine systems is included; with the goal of protecting biodiversity while safeguarding and improving resilience to climate change and supporting ecosystem services such as nutrient regulation.
The delivery of Irelands Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) ambitions is a key action under the programme with 10 % coverage expected as soon as is practical and 30 % MPAs by 2030.
Ireland’s Programme of Measures (PoMs) sets out Ireland’s plan to maintain or achieve Good Environmental Status of its marine waters over the next 6 years to 2028. The PoMs was developed in consideration of Irelands assessment of Good Environmental Status (GES) and Irelands Environmental Targets for our seas as outlined in Ireland's Marine Strategy Framework Part 1. The PoMs was reported to the European Commission in December 2022 as part of Ireland’s European and Regional commitments under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).
Measures under the PoMs consider all aspects of marine health based on 11 descriptors which are set out in the Marine Strategy Framework Directive. Descriptors relating to biodiversity, commercial fish and shellfish, food webs and sea-floor integrity are used to identify the state of the marine environment. Other descriptors relating to non-indigenous species, eutrophication, hydrographical conditions, contaminants, contaminants in seafood, litter and underwater noise are used to identify the pressures on the marine environment form from human activities.
New and/or updated measures have been included for all 11 descriptors of the MSFD. The PoMs includes 112 ongoing measures brought forward from the 2015 PoMs, 28 measures which have been updated, and 12 new measures.
The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage led a national level steering group to develop the of the PoMs. This included input from government departments and State agencies responsible for managing pressures on the marine environment, as well as from environmental non-governmental organisations, and has incorporated developments in both policy and legislation aimed at protecting the marine environment since the first PoMs was reported in 2015.
The members of the steering committee include: Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Sea Fisheries Protection Authority (SFPA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transport (DoT), Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (DECC), Inland Fisheries Ireland (IFI), Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), Environmental non-Government Organisation (eNGO) representatives (Coastwatch & SWAN), Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM), National Biodiversity Data Centre (NBDC).
A number of actions under the PoMs have been embedded in the revised Climate Action Plan 2023 and Irelands draft 4th National Biodiversity Action Plan to ensure coherence between policies aimed at tackling the dual biodiversity and climate crises facing Ireland’s Marine Environment.
Coherence of measures between North East Atlantic States and the EU is crucial to successful delivery of the programme as pressures are often transboundary in nature. Ireland works with 15 other countries in the North East Atlantic and the European Commission under the OSPAR Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the North-East Atlantic to deliver a number of regional measures in the PoMs. This includes an overarching North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy to 2030, which was signed by all 16 contracting parties, including Ireland in 2021.
Specific measures in the PoMs aimed at improving biodiversity outcomes in Ireland’s Marine environment include continued technical measures to reduce the impacts of incidental bycatch, revision of the Wildlife Acts and wildlife watching codes of practice, and increased spatial protection measures.
In terms of spatial protection, Ireland is committed to is the development and expansion of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). This will be carried out accordance with international obligations under the MSFD and the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030, which seeks to increase MPA coverage to 30 % of EU marine waters by 2030.
The development of a well-managed, representative and connected network of protected areas in our seas and ocean will support and build ecological resilience to a variety of challenges in the marine environment, not least those brought about by human activities and climate change.
In December 2022 government approved the General Scheme of Marine Protected Areas Bill. The legislation is expected to be enacted as early as possible in 2023. The development of MPAs will be grounded in a participatory, ecosystem-based approach to expand the focus of marine protection in our seas and oceans, and to include ecosystem services such as those provided by “Blue Carbon” habitats and by climate-resilient features. It will also mandate the establishment of management plans for individual MPA sites.
The proposed legislation will include provisions for an Ocean Environment Policy Statement to be adopted in 2023 and revised on a 6-year basis. This will set priorities for the protection of Ireland’s marine environment and for the designation of MPAs.
Ireland has made a commitment under the PoMs to ‘Develop Nature-based Solutions to conserve and restore estuarine, coastal and marine habitats.’ The roadmap to developing these solutions will include three steps: improving the knowledge base, identifying suitable habitats for protection and restoration, and augmenting implementation. This action was launched with a national workshop in January 2023. This measure will also feed into action under OSPARs North-East Atlantic Environment Strategy to 2030 to develop a regional approach to applying Nature Based solutions across the North East Atlantic.
The PoMs incorporates consideration of future increases in human activities and use of the marine space and the associated cumulative effects of these pressures on the marine environment. This is reflected in a revised guidance of environmental consideration for offshore renewable energy, a requirement to report impulsive noise generated from site exploration for offshore Renewable Energy and updated Noise Guidance to manage increased risks to marine mammals by man-made noise.
The review of the MSFD programme of measures was informed by engagement with key interested parties. This engagement included oversight by the MSFD National Steering Group; a 12-week public consultation; and a series of workshops with key stakeholders, including a number of environmental non-government organisations (eNGOs).