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

I thank the Minister of State for his answer. If there is some misunderstanding, confusion is probably a better word for it because the Bill itself is not clear. Certainly, it does not provide us with as clear an explanation as the Minister of State has just provided for us on the floor. That was helpful. The difficulty, however, with the reference to section 31 is that if an SEA screening is to take place and an SEA is not required, that means there would be no public consultation. It would only be in the context of a strategic environmental assessment.

That is a very different position from what has just been outlined with respect to the county development plan guidelines, whereby a robust consultation took place over a number of months. Was consideration given to public consultation even where a strategic environmental assessment screening did not require such an assessment?

Will the Minister of State address the point raised by me and others on the mandatory nature of these? Are these similar to the section 28 mandatory ministerial guidelines on terrestrial planning or do they simply have to have regard to them in respect of functions? We will discuss that more specifically with the next set of amendments but I am trying to understand the full intention behind section 7.