Mr. Eamonn Kelly:

On the question of consultation, this process was initiated through a court case. The main consulting party was the Attorney General. Of course, we have also consulted with the commission, which was involved in the designation of this legislation initially back in 2010.

Other than that, we have consulted various representatives from the Government and other Departments. They are the parties we have consulted thus far. I will add that we have had engagement, specifically, with representatives of the Green Party. The key point is that we are before the committee now to take any views members might have on it. We are always happy to hear any suggestions.

On fines, Derrybrien is still ongoing. At this stage, the State has paid a little more than €10 million. As far as I am aware, that case has to do with the regularisation of an ESB wind farm in Derrybrien. That is currently working its way through the substitute consent process at the moment. No doubt, there will be more payments on that. Every six months, the State is liable to pay €2.745 million. There will definitely be more fines on that basis. To respond to Deputy Ring's question, we have paid €10 million thus far.

We have gone through some examples of substitute consent. Effectively, when the legislation was first enacted, the vast majority of the cases related to quarries. It is very varied at the moment. We have examples. Peat harvesting has come through as one in the past year and there has been a number of peat cases. Bord na Móna, for example, put through seven or eight applications, but it subsequently withdrew them because, as members are probably aware, it is changing its policy on cutting peat. There are other examples relating to grid connections. There are applications for an oyster processing facility, a waste facility, an agricultural structure, road widening, a holiday home, a sea wall, a manufacturing plant, a harbour development and a glass recycling facility, to give Deputy Ó Broin examples. These are cases that are not necessarily large scale. The appropriate assessment side of substitute consent, which is to do with protection of specific designated areas under the habitats directive and the birds directive, may bring cases in that are quite small but are still significant and need to be addressed. In all cases, we are not talking about something as big or as significant as Derrybrien, but it is one of the most well-known cases.