Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome everyone and I thank Ms O'Donoghue for the presentation. As a former local authority member, I agree with much of what Deputy Coffey has had to say. Any time a foreshore licence was mentioned relating to a development we were pursuing, I felt like pulling out my hair. In the case of an inland river that is tidal, a local authority must get a foreshore licence. My town tried to get a sewerage scheme but there seemed to be inordinate delay to install a tertiary treatment plant which would have improved discharges into the river. It seemed crazy and at times there seemed to be years of delay. I hope that will be addressed.

As far as I can see we need to put in place a maritime spatial plan. It makes no sense that ad hoc decisions are being made, whether it is to the local authority or An Bord Pleanála, and that these decisions can be made without a schematic approach. Earlier, Senator Keane remarked that we have not assessed our maritime environment properly. This points to a great deal of work that needs to be done to assess our territory from an environmental point of view and from the point of view of the asset.

Something else is more particularly of concern to me. There is a proposal that decision-making in respect of development of the nearshore, which the Department has defined as between low tide and high tide, would go to the local coastal authority. I am from County Mayo. We have a massive coastline. Our coastline is predominantly made up of special areas of conservation or special protection areas. Therefore, the Department is suggesting to the local planning authority in County Mayo that because an environmental assessment or an appropriate assessment would be required to carry out development along the shoreline, it must go to An Bord Pleanála anyway.

Therefore, it has to go to An Bord Pleanála. I do not think this is right. The development, under the umbrella of a maritime spatial plan off the coastal areas, should be with the local authority. Local authorities have local knowledge and plans that do not just consider the environment, but into which local democracy and the local authority feeds. The idea that this will all be done remotely by An Bord Pleanála is anti democratic and that centralisation is not in the vein of local development that should be happening. That issue needs to be addressed. I suggest, as my local county council has suggested, that responsibility for that development and the decision making in respect of development proposals on the nearshore and foreshore should lie with the local authority, regardless of whether it is an SAC or an SPA. Of course, it must have due regard to environmental constraints and the obligation to carry out appropriate assessments. Other than that, it is by a sleight of hand that in Mayo this section will be meaningless because most of the developments will mean it must have this particular environmental consideration. Perhaps the witnesses would address that issue because this will mean something on the ground for us. The local authority there knows about the coastline. I am aware there has never been a great amount of funding whether for a harbour, pier or sewerage scheme, but it knows what it is about and it has a development plan. The power is being removed from the local authority and I do not agree with it.