Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It would be very useful if the Minister of State could give some detail on what exactly is a public participation statement and what is its purpose. It would be very helpful if the Minister of State could come back on that.

Section 18 of the Bill is about public participation and marine spatial plans, and our amendments here are seeking to strengthen this. Section 18 is very weak on public participation. It relies on this public participation statement. From my reading of it, probably the strongest part of it is the list of requirements the Minister may specify with regard to a public participation statement. There is a huge amount of discretion around that list. The section states: "The Minister may by regulations specify requirements with which a public participation statement (M) shall comply...", and then there is the list. There is no obligation and no wording saying that a public participation statement has to comply with these principles. The fact that it is resting on this public participation statement rather than being set out in the legislation is very problematic.

This comes at the heart of Deputy Boyd Barrett's point that public participation should not be done just to tick the box. It is often the case that the public and other stakeholders often have the best knowledge of an issue in a marine area and they can know it in a way that nobody else does. I have seen this countless times where the developers come with highly paid consultants and all the rest and they miss absolutely key knowledge in the local area that is known by the local community, perhaps by the people who have been fishing it for years and have lived there for generations. If it is done right, public participation can actually get information that is in everybody's benefit in the long run. I have a lot of concerns about this.

It goes back to the previous points made that what we are trying to do with this legislation is to facilitate renewable energy, but we need to try to protect our marine biodiversity and environment at the same time. If we are not, then we are negating some of the positives that could come out of renewable energy. The importance of our marine environment has been well documented, not just in terms of biodiversity but also around its importance for carbon capture, in the context of marine life and cetaceans, including whales and dolphins, and with regard to the seabed. If renewable energy is not planned properly, if it is not plan-led, or if it is developer-led, it can lead to unnecessary destruction of our marine environment and the release of carbon, which of course is going against what renewable energy is trying to counteract.

It would be very helpful if the Minister of State will answer specifically what is a public participation statement and what are its purposes.