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

Yes. Second, if I read this correctly, a MAC will not be required for activities included in Schedule 3. These activities include, for example, "maritime usage[s] for the purposes, ... [of] consisting, of prospecting for minerals, or the working of minerals, within the meaning of the Minerals Development Acts". That could possibly be called mining. Mining in the sea in the maritime area would not require a MAC, if I read this correctly. Schedule 3.7 further states:

Any maritime usage for the purposes, or consisting, of the exploration or working of petroleum (within the meaning of the Petroleum and Other Minerals Development Act 1960), or the restoration of ... [such] area in which ... exploration ... for petroleum has taken place.

These are not small usages of the maritime area and Schedule 3 would appear to exclude them from the requirement for a MAC. The Minister of State might detail the other relevant usages because some of the others in Schedule 3 refer to other Acts that I have had time to cross-reference at this stage. I ask for a clear spelling-out of what things will not be subject to a MAC and why. On the face of it, I am deeply unhappy that mining in the maritime area or exploration for petroleum or anything to do with fossil fuels would be somehow not subject to all the processes and consents required in order to ensure those were not damaging to our precious marine environment.