Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the members for their amendments. This grouping contains certain technical amendments to the publication procedures in respect of guidelines and are repeated verbatim for directives. The amendments are not necessary. The current text already provides for publication on websites. It is also intended to publish or provide a link to those documents on the marine spatial planning data tool that is currently being developed by my green planning team and the Marine Institute and that is due to be launched to coincide with the enactment of the Bill.

The GIS-based digital tool will be a portal containing a wealth of marine development information gathered in one location and will include such guidelines and directives. It will display planning applications and consents. Importantly the tool will be available to all members of the public to view on their laptops and mobile devices. Some developers will be discouraged by this, but I make no apology for maintaining and building on the ethos of informing the public as to what is happening or is planned to happen in their maritime area. The marine planning system we are establishing in legislation will operate in an accessible information-rich environment.

Amendment No. 55 proposes publication of the guidelines on the public body's website, which is standard practice. Amendment No. 56 proposes publication of the guidelines on a website of the Government, which is standard practice. Amendment No. 57 proposes inappropriate limitations on the circumstances where the Minister can publish guidelines.

Amendment No. 65 proposes publication of directives on the public body's website, which is standard practice. Amendment No. 66 proposes publication of the directives on a website of the Government, which is standard practice. Amendment No. 67 proposes inappropriate limitations on the circumstances where the Minister can publish directives.

This is a frequent theme throughout several amendments and assumes that the Government does not, as a matter of course, publish material appropriately on its website and in other media. This is, of course, simply not the case. We use all manner of communications and we always avail of emerging technologies to communicate with the public. I note that Deputy Boyd Barrett in the last session made the case that perhaps limiting publication to newspapers might be unnecessarily restrictive given the perhaps somewhat outdated nature of the circulation of hard copies of such publications. Similarly, proposed insertions relating to specific media, such as websites, could, in time, also be considered out of date. We want to future-proof this Bill and make it agile enough to keep pace with the ever-evolving media environment. The drafting of the legislation reflects this ambition. It is not about doing one particular thing but about being able to do all manner of things in the media environment.