Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Something very important has arisen in what the Minister said. It states in the Bill that the Minister shall continue to conduct and complete the review known for the time being as the 2014 Review of Raised Bog Natural Heritage Area Network. The section refers to the review of raised bog habitats. It lays down quite clearly in law that one cannot willy-nilly, even with a raised bog, de-designate it without going through a rather convoluted process. The purpose of all my amendments is that the exact same legal safeguards would apply in relation to anything else the Minister would decide to take out of the NHA. The process is robust and within the law the Minister is introducing because one cannot do it willy-nilly. I would not have thought the officials would have drafted the Bill in such a way, and they did not. They have set out a very comprehensive process in terms of the amendment of the 2000 Act and the insertion of 18A. The Bill is very comprehensive as to what exactly one must do before taking action and, therefore, a Minister could not do what the Minister just said he or she could do because, fortunately, the new Bill even in the case of raised bog will make one jump through quite a few hoops before one can jump the ditch. All the steps are contained in the Bill.