Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

It does not matter who occupies my position; there is a wonderful system of laws and judicial reviews in this State to protect the rights of citizens. There is no way that anybody can offer a definitive prediction of how long it might take to bring a project like this ashore in future.

Several developments have arisen since this project started moving, not least of which is the new planning and development Bill which will streamline the planning process for projects of national importance. Moreover, it was impossible not to learn lessons as we moved through the long and protracted process of bringing the gas onshore. Several reports were compiled in regard to the Corrib project, the Advantica report being the most notable. Some reports were internal to the Department, while external advice was sought in other cases. All those recommendations will form part of the agreed processes not only for this project but also for future projects. This should help to allay some of the concerns in regard to safety and so on.

This project had to secure six consents and permissions under six different Acts, including the Continental Shelf Act, Foreshore Act, Gas Act, Planning and Development Acts and Environmental Protection Agency Act. This is not an efficient or transparent procedure and it gives rise to the problems we have encountered. Preliminary work has already started in the Department to examine, based on the advice received during the course of this project, how we can minimise the numbers of consents and permissions required under different Acts. This is not an attempt to diminish the amount of work that must be done to obtain those consents. Rather than having six separate processes, however, they should be combined and streamlined under the provisions of one or two Acts. Lessons were learned during this process.

See this speech in context