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)
Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source
The section relates to usage exempted from the requirement for a licence. Unlike the maritime area consents, this relates to real activity and the freeing of an application from the requirement for a licence if the Minister decides that its impact is minimal. That is essentially what we are talking about. To use the language of the section, this relates to usages that "would not offend against the objectives listed in Article 5 of the MSP Directive" or are trivial. I am concerned about that. It is back to the issue of what is trivial and how the issue of whether these activities significantly impact on the environment is assessed. Is it the case that the Minister will simply set that out? The Minister will decide.
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