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

The policy statement comes at the top and that is the Government deciding what it wants to do. Below that comes the marine planning framework. Is that not what the Minister of State suggested? I will consider what he said but my worries start there. There are certain things that have to constrain our political whims concerning what might happen in the marine environment, namely, the need to meet certain obligations relating to biodiversity and environmental protection directives we are subject to and so on. They are there to protect the public's right to participate in sustainable planning and development and to protect our environment, habitats, livelihoods and so on. I am worried about that relationship. The Minister of State said the Oireachtas cannot become a planning authority but the Minister will become a planning authority. The Minister of State might like to come back on that point. He might have concerns about the Oireachtas being a planning authority; I have significant concerns about a Minister being a planning authority.

Our development plans for local authority areas are far from perfect but they allow for fairly intensive public engagement and a democratic process for the designation of particular areas for particular activities. That is done in an open, transparent and democratic way where elected representatives say houses can be build in such a place but not in another place because it is a protected environment, that a certain amount of land must be allocated for educational facilities, sport and so on, and certain things cannot be done in certain places. Where are the guarantees that we will have a similarly democratic and transparent regime when it comes to the designation of different parts of the marine environment for different types of activities? The public deserves an answer to that. The fears are that we will not and Ministers will be able to dictate, possibly under the influence of lobbyists, that the marine area regulatory authority when established will not be fully transparent and that the issuing of licences, consents and so on will not involve a transparent, open process. I would like to hear the Minister of State respond to all that.