The Irish government is progressing on plans announced earlier this year to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) via changes to existing marine planning legislation.
Ireland, which has long been criticized for lagging behind the vast majority of E.U. member nations in designating portions of its waters as MPAs, is planning to amend its Maritime Area Planning Act of 2021 to establish such protections, rather than introduce standalone legislation.
Wording on the amendment will be brought before the Irish Parliament in mid-2026, according to Minister for Maritime Affairs Timmy Dooley.
“The bill will provide a legislative basis for the designation and effective management of MPAs in Irish waters,” Dooley told a parliamentary committee in November.
Though exact details of locations and fishing restrictions have yet to emerge, a spokesperson for Bord Iascaigh Mhara, Ireland’s seafood development agency, told SeafoodSource that “ecological sensitivity analyses” have been conducted in the Irish and Celtic seas, “the aims of which were to … provide rationales and recommendations for the identification of areas for potential designation as MPAs through processes that align with provisions set out in the forthcoming MPA legislation.”
The spokesperson added that fishing could be prohibited in the areas designated as MPAs.
“Reports arising from the analyses state that … offshore renewables and fishing sectoral activity should be considered incompatible with MPAs designated for features with a medium or high level of sensitivity to the pressures exerted by those sectors, but in practice, mitigation measures and detailed analyses of risk and impact could render activities compatible,” the spokesperson said.
In response, the nation’s fishing industry is calling for more consultation with the government.
Irish Fish Producers Organization (IFPO) CEO Aodh O’Donnell said the members of his organization support MPAs in principle; however, he said they want more consultation “especially if a substantial proportion of the MPAs become no-take zones.”
“We have not yet been given clarity on what percentage in Ireland will be subject to full no-take limits,” he said.
O’Donnell added that so far in the process, the fishing industry has received little information from the government.
“We have not been provided with maps, proposed boundaries, or socioeconomic assessments of the areas under consideration,” he said. “This lack of transparency creates uncertainty for a sector already facing a major spatial squeeze from offshore renewable energy development and other competing marine uses.”
Ireland has consistently ranked near the bottom of E.U. countries in designating their waters as marine protected areas, having failed to meet the previous international United Nations’ target of protecting 10 percent of waters by 2020. By contrast, Spain has designated 20 percent of its marine waters as MPAs, and France has already designated 30 percent.
“Until 2023, Ireland was at the bottom of the ranking of E.U. countries for MPAs, and only thanks to new MPAs last year, it went from 2 percent to about 8 percent of its waters designated as MPAs,” Oceana Campaign Director for Marine Protection Nicolas Fournier said in early 2024. “So, not only did Ireland fail to meet the previous international UN target of 10 percent by 2020, but it will require immense and resolute efforts to meet the new 30 percent target by 2030 as endorsed by the government.”
