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

Excellent. We collectively deleted it. That is good.

I also have concerns in respect of paragraph 15(b), relating to "a terminal, building or installation ancillary to a terminal that is used for the liquefaction of natural gas or the importation, offloading and re-gasification of liquefied natural gas", because some of us think that we do not need LNG infrastructure. If we are serious about our climate goals, we should not be envisaging further development of LNG infrastructure. I doubt the Government will agree with us on this, but it runs counter to the commitments we have to try to reduce CO2 emissions.

As regards paragraphs 16 and 21, it may be that I need them to be clarified. If I understand this correctly, in the context of the installation of storage for certain developments, there is no requirement for full development consent if the development is less than 20 ha. All of this applies for developments of more than 20 ha. Developments of 19 ha, 10 ha or 5 ha are quite large. The installation of storage for natural gas capacity, combustible gases, oil or coal on an area of 15 ha, 10 ha or even 5 ha is a pretty big deal. Is the threshold adequate? What is the logic behind it?

There is a similar point to be made with regard to paragraph 21, which relates to port installations and works relating to parking areas, unloading areas, ship repair areas, associated office facilities or areas for transport of goods in circumstances where the enclosed area is less than 20 ha, involves the reclamation of land that is less than 5 ha or involves the construction of a quay that is less than 100 m in length or the provision of facilities that would admit vessels that are less than 1,350 tonnes. Those would all be quite big developments to happen in a port. Why is an effort to put a rigorous regime in place for significant development proposals, if I understand this correctly, while proposals that are pretty significant but below that threshold will not be subject to the same sort of development consent process with all the associated consultation and compliance with directives and so on that, obviously, we have all said we are committed to?