Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 9 November 2021

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed)

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

I will give a little background information before I speak to the amendment. The MAC concept is new and it would be helpful from the outset to detail what a MAC is and what it is not. The MAC fulfils specific functions within the overall consenting sequence. A MAC is a property right to occupy a part of the maritime area conditional on securing other necessary approvals, it ensures due diligence that the MAC holder can undertake the proposal, manages the relationship between MARA and the holder through the MAC conditions and is the gateway into planning permission. A MAC is not a lease, it is not permission to undertake works, development or activities provided for under the Planning Act or licensing and it is not an environmental decision-making process. We have applied a single environmental assessment principle that is provided for under the Planning Act or licensing. In developing the new regime set out in the Bill we examined in detail the operation of the Foreshore Act and its interactions with the Planning Act. We have designed a new sequenced consent regime that separates the financial and property issues from the environmental and planning issues. Prospective developers will have to secure a MAC and then apply for planning permission. They will need both.

Throughout these sessions, I have worked with Members to incorporate improvements that are feasible. However, we cannot accept proposals that seek to fundamentally change the nature of the MAC process or recreate the duplication that exists under the current regime. We are creating a new, streamlined and efficient regime to better manage maritime usages. The property and planning processes must remain distinct and separate in order for the new regime to operate effectively. Much of the discussion in the earlier sessions focused on a particular sector of offshore development. I remind Members that the regime this Bill will establish is designed to be operable for maritime usages of all scales, from small slipways to major port development.

Amendment no. 147 provides for MACs granted under section 73 to be subject to a series of milestones set out by the Minister. Section 73(2) provides for regulations to exempt certain maritime usages from requiring a MAC.

From a technical perspective the proposal is located in the wrong place. Moving onto the substance, it provides for the Minister to determine by regulations case by case issues best handled by the maritime area regulatory authority, MARA, in the context of specific applications and grants.

Standing further back, and looking at the intention of the proposed amendment, I believe it is to ensure that any proposal for which a maritime area consent, MAC, and ultimately planning permission is granted proceeds without undue delay.

In that regard the initiated text of the Bill already provides robustly for this. I draw members' attention to Schedule 6. No. 5 allows for the imposition of a timeframe in which to secure planning permission. No. 6 allows for the imposition of conditions relating to other statutory milestones such as planning permission.

The Deputies may wish to withdraw the amendment on foot of this explanation.

For Deputy Boyd Barrett, amendments Nos. 219 and 294 cover mining within the scope.

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