Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

One of the conversations we are having on another Bill is around the co-creation of marine protected areas, where there has been a very useful discussion on that. The idea, in fact, came from one of the witnesses, Tasman Crowe, one of the country’s leading marine biologists who has played a key role in bringing different sectors together in developing a strategy for protecting our marine biodiversity, where he was saying that rather than thinking of consultation as being where someone puts a proposal and one has to say yes or no to it, you have an earlier stage. This goes a little bit back to some of the Chair’s discussions around local area plans, LAPs, and strategic development zones because I am a fan of such strategic development zones where they work. If we could get people involved even earlier, which is not to ask if they like a particular proposal, but to ask what are we going to do here. Can we get more involved in co-creation at a plan-led level?

This is a question for Mr. Mandal. The Government is telling us that that is in this Bill and that this is a much more plan-led approach. Does he see that and if not what needs to go into the Bill from the point of view of our recommendations to achieve that plan-led approach?