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

Amendment No. 200, which has in effect also been proposed by other Deputies, allows for a condition to be attached to the licence to state that such part of the maritime area is for the exclusive use of the stated licensed usage. This will enable provision to be made for the avoidance of conflict between licensable usages in the maritime area. It is important to note that this power is discretionary and does not confer exclusive rights automatically. It is entirely up to MARA to apply this provision in specific circumstances, for example, where an applicant requires the sole use of a part of the maritime area temporarily for reasons of public safety. As stated previously, this has the same effect as Deputy Matthews’s amendment and it would be my preference to use the wording that has been through the relevant experts.

Amendment No. 201 requires MARA to have regard to the national marine planning framework before it decides to grant a licence. This amendment is related to the proposed deletion of lines 4 to 5 on page 100 in amendment No. 202. The current provision is difficult to administer and the proposed wording provides MARA with the required professional latitude in its decision-making. The wording is directly comparable to that used in the Planning and Development Act in respect of local authorities’ obligations to have regard to their development plans when making decisions on planning applications. For instance, this provision allows MARA to apply the heritage requirements set out in section 7 of the national marine planning framework to specific applications in specific areas, as discussed earlier, but would give it the latitude not to apply these requirements where they were not required, for example, for minor licence applications where there were no heritage assets that could be impacted.

This is a standard form of wording to allow MARA to be proportional when applying the provisions of the national marine planning framework. It is not designed to reduce the requirement for large-scale operators not to comply with that framework and, where there is an explicit obligation in the framework relating to a particular licensable usage, MARA could not simply ignore it.

Amendment No. 202 is related and it removes the requirement for MARA to not grant a licence unless the licence is consistent with the national marine planning framework. This wording is inconsistent with other similar provisions in the Planning and Development Act and does not provide MARA with the requisite professional latitude to interpret the policy provisions of the framework as they relate to licensable activities. Not all of the provisions of the framework will apply to all of the usages set out in Schedule 7 in a consistent manner. Amendment No. 201 inserts a more appropriate wording that requires MARA to have regard to the framework before it decides to grant a licence.

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