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

I move amendment No. 286:

In page 217, line 20, to delete “telecommunications cable” and substitute “telecommunications cable or pipeline”.

I propose to take amendments Nos. 286 to 291, inclusive, together.

Amendment No. 286 is a technical drafting amendment. The purpose of this amendment is, for technical reasons, to provide for telecommunications pipelines, in addition to telecommunications cables, in Reference No. 5 of the Eighth Schedule to the PDA. All that this amendment does is ensure that the board will determine all telecoms infrastructure as described.

The purpose of amendment No. 287 is to add “seabed or substrata beneath the soil or seabed” to “soil” for this category in this Schedule. This amendment is made to take account of specific maritime geological conditions and, similar to amendment No. 286, to avoid a situation where, for technical reasons, the board does not examine something that it was intended to.

The purpose of amendment No. 288 is to remove “nuclear waste material storage” as a category in this Schedule. It is not the Government’s intention to permit such activities in the maritime area and the inclusion in the list was as a result of the transposition of the EIA directive.

Amendment No. 289 is a renumbering amendment to accommodate amendment No. 288.

The purpose of amendment No. 290 is, for drafting reasons, to delete closing quotation marks after “tonnes” in Reference No. 21 of this Schedule. It is related to amendment No. 291.