Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

In terms of the Department's response to the proposal for a national audit, to be clear, I am not talking about a huge amount of money spent on economic appraisals and all that. I am talking about basic health and safety audits to make sure the piers and harbours are workable for people.

One thing that infuriates me is the issue of dredging of piers and harbours and the absolute bureaucracy people have to go through. It is just shocking. This is the basic safe maintenance of a pier or harbour. Until recent times, two or three Departments were involved in the process. It was the Department with responsibility for planning, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and possibly the Department of the environment and climate too. I just want to get a sense of the Departments involved. Obviously, the Maritime Area Regulatory Authority, MARA, now is in play in having to deal with this. How do we fast-track permission to dredge a pier or harbour so people can access it and leave it safely?

Those are two questions then on a national audit and the whole issue of how we can tidy up the bureaucracy and give people permission to keep these places safe.