Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 121:

In page 43, between lines 6 and 7, to insert the following:

"CHAPTER 9

Delegations".

Amendments 121 to 123, inclusive, collectively provide for the potential delegation of certain functions under the State Property Act from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to MARA in relation to the sale of the maritime area. Such sales might be appropriate in certain very limited circumstances, such as where a proposal intends to reclaim a part of the maritime area and it would subsequently cease physically to be a maritime area.

I reassure members on a number of matters. Even if a sale were effected instead of a maritime area of consent, MAC, grant, any development would still be subject to the provisions of the Planning and Development Act. This is no "end run". The land in question, which is currently the foreshore, is vested in the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform. I do not think the Minister, Deputy McGrath, will mind me saying that along with all of his predecessors he has guarded this ownership jealously and the areas involved generally have been very trivial. At present, foreshore consents, and MACs if this Bill is enacted, are the best means of ensuring appropriate returns for the State for the use of its property. I must clarify that the provision to sell already exists under the State Property Act. All the Bill will change is how such sales might be administered in future.