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

As regards a Minister or a local authority doing this, they have a certain level of democratic accountability, but State agencies are a couple of steps removed in that regard. They can have accountability to Ministers and so forth but different State agencies, Ministers and Departments will come at this with different perspectives. Some could be particularly tied or may not be so neutral in how they look at this. Some could be very much geared towards one particular area, such as renewable energy or something like that. They could be looking at it just from that sphere and under this legislation they would have the ability to do the DMAP.

Does it not create potential concerns that they might not be neutral or that they might not look at the wider issues sufficiently although, obviously, they will do some of that? Does it also not create a bit of difficulty around competence and expertise in that it could be spread between too many different bodies and, thus, create a bit of inefficiency? Whereas some of these State agencies might have the competence and expertise in terms of marine biodiversity, others might not. Does that not create certain issues and, potentially, create a process where there could be some deficiencies? The Minister of State might address those points.