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

The public feels developers are always not one but ten steps ahead in terms of knowledge of plans. It is felt that the public is the last to know about anything and, insofar as consultation takes place, it is a tick-box exercise. It is minimal and, as we noted earlier, often happens around August or December. People find out at the last minute that they are to be consulted and there is a feeling that many things are faits accomplis.

There is a need to tightly define and ensure the most thoroughgoing, rigorous, open, transparent process of public consultation and participation. I hate the world "consultation". There should be public participation in the planning of our regulation and management of our marine area and resources. People want that and they want to be confident. What is set out in the directives, the Aarhus Convention and so on is precisely that. The definition of sustainable planning and development is that the public is part of it. The public is not incidental to planning and development but a critical part of it and often has the greatest knowledge.

We will move onto MARA and the personnel who will oversee these things but who are the experts? One of the key groups of experts is the public, most often, or the stakeholders in a particular area. They are often not seen as such, but as a pain in the neck to be overcome, certainly by developers as demonstrated in some of their documents. We are trying to ensure that public involvement is thoroughgoing, that the public know and that there is no question of people not knowing.

The Minister of State looked favourably on the suggestion that we move from traditional newspaper media to radio advertising and stuff like that and hopefully that will be reflected in Government amendments before we get to Report Stage. It is so everybody knows something important is happening that affects the marine area where they operate or that is close to them. That is what we are looking for and no vagueness or get-out clauses, as Deputy Cian O'Callaghan pointed to. That is the logic of these amendments.