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

One of our many concerns is that the national marine planning framework, NMPF, is not fully compliant with the directives.

It sets out fairly general policy objectives, some of which are laudable while others are not so laudable in the case of liquid natural gas, LNG, storage and infrastructure. However, it is not really a plan. It is not ecosystem-based and it does not guarantee that the load the sea can take in terms of development is fully considered in the round on an ecosystem basis and, therefore, there is the potential to massively overload the marine environment with inappropriate developments because it is not really specified. It is about general objectives. Our concern is that the DMAPs arising from that must ensure that the gaps we believe exist in the national marine planning framework are plugged properly. It is not even clear to us that the DMAPs must be fully compliant with the marine spatial planning directive and various EU directives. Could the Minister of State tell us where in the Bill can we find the requirement to be fully in compliance with the marine spatial planning directive and other directives specifically in terms of DMAPs? Given our concerns in this regard, this is an attempt to ensure that all the necessary study and public consultation are done and all the concerns for environmental sensitivities are fully explored and we have the necessary consultation around heritage with the Minister and consult the public fully regarding the development of any DMAP because we see the DMAPs as plugging the gap for the lack of detail in the national marine planning framework.