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

The Minister of State's amendments are quite helpful but given these very long amendments and the consequential amendments to different sections of the Bill, it would be helpful if we could introduce a little bit of plain English to the responses. That is not in any way criticising the Minister of State for reading the technical import of the amendments into the record because that has to be done. However, people sitting at home who have just listened to our series of conversations about the NMPF and the MSPs will be legitimately asking what a DMAP is and how it relates to the MSPs. I ask the Minister of State to provide us with some clarity on what a DMAP is likely to look like or involve, in terms of its geographical size, its sectoral import and whether it could be activity-related rather than geographical, etc.

Second, I would like the Minister of State to give us more clarity on the kinds of agencies we are likely to see designated by "M" as "D". I know that sounds like a James Bond movie but that is essentially what we are talking about here. I have no difficulty with a competent authority such as MARA being given a role but it is reasonable for the committee to get some clarity from the Minister of State because there is an intention here. I am speculating on this as much in the hope that the Minister of State will say I am wrong as that I am right. With respect to offshore wind, for example, could the competent authority be another Department that is responsible for regulation of energy? Would it therefore come under the Minister? Under what circumstances would MARA or a local authority deal with that? With local authorities it is a little bit clearer because they are more limited in their scope. Who is likely to be designated "D" by "M", or "M" by "D", and for what purpose? A little more information on that would help us to clarify and determine whether we press our amendments.