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

As soon as this legislation is passed, can a public body seek to be designated? For example, if a local authority decided that it wanted a particular marine area, would that be limited to the nearshore area? If that area went beyond the nearshore, since it still had an interest could it request to be designated to develop this more localised form of plan? What happens if multiple public bodies have an interest in a particular area? How does that work? The Minister of State mentioned the energy regulator, heritage bodies and local authorities. They might all have interest in the same area and all wish to develop a DMAP for the same area or for areas that overlap. How will all that work? I ask the Minister of State to elaborate a bit on that. Can a body seeking to develop a DMAP for a particular area start to request designation to develop a DMAP as soon as this legislation is passed?