Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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Or even a provision whereby it would be open to the Dáil to ask for a debate and for the issue to be decided. There may be matters that do not require this but directives and guidelines should, at a minimum, be discussed by a committee.

There are matters that the Business Committee is happy to have a committee deal with, while there are others regarding which it is not satisfied to have a committee alone deal in the belief that they need to be discussed and passed by the Dáil. Sometimes it is agreed, even by the Government, that there are matters of great enough significance to warrant that, but it is not required as a matter of course. The Department and Minister of State should consider that.

We are in new planning territory. We are trying to build a planning and development regime from scratch in an area where there was nothing. There is a need for checks and balances when starting from scratch in respect of an important area, the maritime area, and we must ensure that we do not make the mistakes that were made on land in the past. The checks and balances we are requiring a reasonable. If our proposals are a little over the top or onerous in the view of the Minister of State, could we make provision for at least a committee to have some role and afford the Dáil the possibility of debating these matters and, where necessary, resolutions, when it deems it important?