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

I support the spirit of these amendments. The county development plan does not relate to anything beyond the high-water mark. The Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council county development plan has objectives, priorities and so on for Dún Laoghaire Harbour. It could as easily be Bullock Harbour, Galway Harbour or Cork Harbour.

How does all this impact on that? We fought quite hard to get Dún Laoghaire Harbour integrated into the local authority. It was previously managed separately by a harbour company. That caused significant problems due to divergent objectives. We now have, at least in theory, the possibility of having an integrated approach between the county and the harbour, which is a very important asset for us, as I am sure the harbours of towns and villages across the country are. How then do these two things relate to each other? Will the Minister of State explain that?

I am not sure whether this is the section where I should raise this issue but the Minister of State referred to it there. I ask for the Chairman's direction on that. In this section we are dealing with, and I am pretty sure the Minister of State referred to it, permission may be granted where the national marine planning framework or maritime spatial plan is materially contravened. There are conditions where permission may be granted. I must express concern about that. It states the conditions under which this might happen are if: "the proposed development is of strategic, economic or social importance to the State" and where they may be conflicting objectives, essentially, that are "ambiguous" in the national marine planning framework or the maritime spatial plan. That just opens everything up. Anything goes then, potentially. We have all these safeguards, all these plans and we have this framework but then, actually, anything goes if it is considered to be "... of strategic, economic or social importance to the State". Alternatively, I can tell the Minister of State that from looking at the marine planning framework, it would not be difficult to construe multiple competing objectives in the same maritime space. Then we are into a situation where literally anything goes and it is about whoever happens to be making the decision at the time and whatever his or her particular prejudices might be. Will the Minister of State respond to those concerns?

As a final point, I refer to the benefits and impacts for the local economy, communities and so on. That is absolutely imperative. There is nothing that frustrates people more. By the way, I do not think there is anything discriminatory in it. It would be discriminatory if we set religious or ethnic conditions or if we were saying there were particular natives or something. If we are talking about benefits to the local community and people who live in that area, as long as it is done on a non-discriminatory basis it is critically important there are benefits and employment benefits of developments which may be impacting on that area. It is an entirely laudable and legitimate aspiration. Maybe the Minister of State could set out what his thoughts are on how we are going to achieve that. Does he agree that is what we should be trying to achieve? If it is, what is he intending to do to try to achieve that?