Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I missed the first few minutes because I was in the Dáil. My concern, and that of a lot of people, is that we are pushing through legislation which is about facilitating development rather than starting with the proper mapping out of what should and should not happen, where it should happen and when it should happen in the marine environment, and having proper consultation around all of that. In our opinion, consultation has not happened to the degree that it should. We want to see this Bill remedy that as much as possible and ensure that all of those who have an interest in protecting our heritage, marine environment, fisheries, tourism and the general environment are properly consulted as a matter of course on those issues, as well as NGOs and stakeholders who have a real stake in decisions that might be made that impact on the maritime area. It is reasonable that it should be set out who they are and the minimum requirements to consult with them.

It is not clear to me who exactly the Minister has to consult with in terms of the granting of MACs, which is what they are called now. I will understand more as we go through the Bill, but as far as I understand it, the suggestion is that a MAC does not attract environmental and public participation obligations. I do not accept that for a moment. It does and should. The problem we have is that developers have essentially selected their own sites, grabbed them and it becomes a fait accompli . Somewhere further along the line we apparently rubber-stamp them, having vetted them, but it is all too late in reality. We want to see all of those gaps plugged to guarantee that we do planning in a proper, sustainable manner in line with EU directives on spatial marine planning and get things in the right order. This is part of that campaign.