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

I welcome that the Minister of State has acknowledged the error and that he is going to correct it. Related to that is the issue of unknown knowns. Part of what we are trying to do here in having a good planning process is identifying unknowns that are risks to marine environment and trying to see how they will be addressed in the process. I have a few concerns. One of my key concerns is that there is not sufficient provision in the legislation to ensure DMAPs, and the process around them, are being carried out in line with the marine spatial planning directive. That is a core concern.

I agree with what Deputy Boyd Barrett said. I have a huge concern that the overall process is an incremental approach to planning and that it is looking at filling in gaps rather than first doing a thorough, plan-led, detailed approach that is incremental and stage-by-stage. After the last meeting, I thought about the Minister of State’s comments on the public consultation process. It is clear the Minister of State and the officials put much work into the public consultation process. It is important to acknowledge that. However, the question on public consultation is never about how much work the people working on it put into it. Neither is it about how good the people leading the public consultation process think it is. It is about how good the wider public and stakeholders think the consultation process is. That is not a criticism of anyone. It is normal in any consultation process that people who have put in all the work feel they have done a thorough consultation process. It is also normal that the general public and stakeholders might feel that it maybe was not as good, and that there was not enough awareness. That is a quite a natural gap.

What we are seeking to do through these proposed amendments is to ensure that consultation is as strong and robust as possible, from the point of view of stakeholders and the general public, as opposed to people who are burdened with all the work in running the public consultation process. It is important to acknowledge that no matter how much work is put in, and how thorough a public consultation process is, it may not meet expectations of the public. However, the key point is that consultation is strong enough to elicit the key information from stakeholders and from communities and that it is elicited at an early stage in the process. The more that is brought out at an early stage in the process, then more complex issues and a larger number of issues can be resolved at an earlier stage.

The issue here is around the gaps in the process around DMAPs. We have identified weaknesses in the process as presented in the Bill. We are seeking to strengthen it through these proposed amendments to make it a more robust process. A more robust, clearer, stronger process is in the interests of everyone, as well as the marine environment. A more robust process will work for all stakeholders. One of the issues to date is that there has been a lack of a robust planning process. That is causing issues for people who are seeking to develop renewable wind energy, as well as everybody else.