Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I am party to a detailed submission on this. I am involved in the Save Our Seafront group and we raised a number of concerns about the Bill. I have also raised the issue of the Providence Resources oil rig application on the foreshore off Dublin Bay at the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions and I was referred back to this committee for discussion. I am, therefore, representing that committee's desire to discuss the issue as well.

There could not be more important legislation than this because we are an island nation. We have probably the highest ratio of coastal zone to land mass in Europe. At every level - cultural, environmental, economic, historic and so on - this is important. We all agree that the 1933 Act governing this area is inadequate and, therefore, the legislation needs to be streamlined and modernised. The current legislation is unacceptable because all the power is in the hands of the Department. Officials can sit on an application for as long they like - six days, six months or six years - before making a decision on whether something can go ahead on the foreshore. That is unacceptable. There is no appeals process and we are dealing with sensitive and serious projects, particularly those relating to wind energy, oil rigs and so on.

Does streamlining mean making it easier for oil and energy companies to get big projects onto the foreshore and to get around environment impact statements and proper public consultation, as demanded by the Aarhus convention, or will it result in a robust system of public consultation and protection? I worry that it will be former, not the latter, because of the three commitments in the programme for Government, which refer to streamlining, efficient foreshore licensing and getting resources onshore from offshore. There is no mention of the environment at all. Providence Resources had to withdraw its application to build an oil rig at a location unprecedentedly close to the foreshore because it was running seriously foul of European requirements for proper environmental impact assessment and there were major problems because of the negligible public consultation. The company placed one advertisement in one newspaper and a few signs in a number of Garda stations, which was a joke. All that was left at the whim of the Minister.