Dinny McGinley T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, will deliver a keynote address to the European Maritime Day Conference in Valletta, Malta, this morning (9.30am).
The conference, which runs today and tomorrow, is organised by the European Commission (DG for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) in partnership with the Maltese Ministry for the Economy, Investment and Small Business, and the Maltese Ministry for Tourism. Discussions will focus on the seas and oceans and the economic opportunities they offer.
Today’s programme will include high-level political debates, with more practical exchanges between maritime stakeholders being held tomorrow.
The Minister’s address this morning is one of the keynote addresses which will open the political section of the conference. These will be followed by plenary sessions led by ministers, experts, and CEOs, offering opportunity to reflect at high level on how best to effect Blue Growth. The first session will focus on sustainable coastal and maritime tourism in the light of the Communication on Coastal and Maritime Tourism. Particular issues facing islands, such as connectivity and mobility, will be the theme of the second plenary session.
Speaking in advance of the conference, Minister of State McGinley said: “I welcome the opportunity to speak on the subject of sustainable coastal and maritime tourism in the wider context of Blue Growth. Blue Growth, and in particular the development of an Action Plan for the Atlantic Strategy, is one of the priority areas in Ireland’s European Presidency programme.”
The parallel sessions later today will be more specific and will tackle the cruise sector, marine and coastal management, and the Mediterranean Sea basin. Tomorrow’s programme will concentrate on the stakeholders, in the context of the development of an integrated maritime policy.
Minister McGinley commented: “In Ireland we are taking measures to harness the potential of coastal and maritime tourism. During 2012 the Government launched an Integrated Marine Plan, called ‘Harnessing our Ocean Wealth’, to double the value of Ireland’s ocean wealth and to increase the turnover from our ocean economy. The plan is part of an overall integrated approach to the management of our marine assets and includes innovative coastal and maritime tourism projects such as the Wild Atlantic Way — a 2,500‑kilometre long-distance driving route stretching from Donegal to County Cork.”