Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 April 2021

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

National Marine Planning Framework: Discussion

Photo of Eoin Ó BroinEoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am in Leinster House. I thank the Department for the briefing material and for the very detailed private briefing it gave us last week. Like Senator Fitzpatrick, I acknowledge that this is a hugely significant piece of work, but also a hugely significant statutory framework for future planning in the marine area.

One of the concerns I want to raise at the outset is that this is a statutory plan, so it has in many respects a similar status as law does. It will be the statutory basis upon which planning decisions on a wide range of activities will be made in the marine space in the future. When one thinks about what normally happens with legislation, which is that the Government produces it, the Oireachtas scrutinises it, potentially amends it and finally agrees it through a procedure in both Houses of the Oireachtas, with this, it is a different process. It is important we put that on the table. It is great that we get a public briefing, but we may or may not get further committee or Dáil sessions. We are not involved as legislators in the making of this plan in the same way as we would be with legislation. The reason I say that is that Article 15.2.1° of the Constitution is very clear in placing the exclusive responsibility for making legislation with the Oireachtas.

It seems to me that we are not making something; we are being asked to approve it after it has been made. That is a significant statement of fact.

Following the private briefing on the last day we met, we had some discussion on the formal legal procedure for this, which caused me to take a look at section 73 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018. It provides not just for this type of session but, for example, for a relevant Oireachtas committee to scrutinise the plan, produce a report, make recommendations, etc. such that we are not constrained by whether we proceed from here to a Dáil motion to approve. It is important that members acknowledge that. I think we need to scrutinise this to the maximum extent possible without delaying the process in any way. I have not yet finished reading the 400-page plan. It is very technical and much of it is way beyond my own competence, let alone the technical accompanying data and documents. I think this committee needs to do a little more than have one briefing on this. We need a formal pre-legislative scrutiny process and report, followed by Dáil and Seanad debates before any motion is proposed. I intend to propose this formally at the end of today's meeting.

I have two questions, the first of which relates to the constitutional and legal question. Has the Department secured sufficient legal advice with respect to how this is proposed to be approved by the Oireachtas? Is it satisfied that it is fully compliant with the Constitution and the relevant section of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018, which I mentioned earlier? If we pass this, we want it to be legally and constitutionally robust. I am interested in hearing the Department's views on that question.

My second question is on an issue I have been raising consistently since the start of this process, namely, the marine protected areas. We do not have those designations mapped out. We do not even have sensitivity mapping of where they might be as we move from the very low identification to the 30% that we need at a later stage. It seems to me that by approving a plan without adequate mapping, we are requiring planning officials from local authorities and An Bord Pleanála to have to make very complex planning decisions without visibility of the marine protected areas and, therefore, the impact of any possible planning decision on the ecosystems of those protected areas. It is a little like approving a county development plan without having the zoning map and matrix approved at the outset, something all of us who have a background in local government would acknowledge to be a roundabout or back-to-front way of doing things. What can the witnesses say to us on the issue of the marine protected areas and the lack of sensitivity mapping and how, if and when this plan is approved, that will make planning decisions by planning officials difficult if not, in some case, impossible?

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