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

I support the amendment. I am repeating to a degree something I alluded to earlier. I was talking to fishermen in Dún Laoghaire yesterday. The perception is, to use the colloquial language of the fishermen, that "this Bill is going to screw us". That is essentially what they perceive. The Minister of State may say that is not the case but that is what they believe. They believe the selection by developers of sites such as the Kish Bank and the Codling Bank, which are their fishing grounds and are spawning grounds for fish, makes the development of large-scale wind infrastructure on a very sensitive site a fait accompli.

The perception is that the Government wants to find the legislative means to facilitate that, rather than take on board their concerns. Their concerns about how planned developments on the Kish Bank will take place have not been taken on board. Similar views are held by groups like Save our Seafront and the Coastal Concern Alliance. There is a group in Waterford that has similar concerns about the impact of development that close to shore and on particular sites. There has not been a consideration of all the potential impacts on everything from heritage to fishing to the tourism amenity to the biosphere in Dublin Bay. We could go through a list of things that are potentially impacted by something of that close proximity.

I would be interested to hear the Minister of State respond to those concerns. The groups have a definite view. I largely share their view. They feel they have been excluded and that all of this has essentially been rammed in over their heads. They feel that they will have little say and will be on the back foot, which they believe they already are. I would be interested to hear the Minister of State respond to those concerns.