Michael D Higgins (Galway West, Labour)

I support the amendment. I cannot understand why there could not be a faster track licensing system for licensing anything located at sea. We need to segregate those applications which have had an extension of the planning legislation towards them. In other words, there is a distinction between onshore applications and marine applications. Where they are purely marine applications, I suggest that the Minister of State, in the spirit of the co-operation on offer from all sides of the House, should take the survey by the Marine Institute and the economic plan - it had actually produced a plan on economic opportunities for marine based development - and in the short term look at the licensing system for that in accordance with standards already laid down. There is no reason not to fast-track that grouping. Where contentious issues arise regarding consultation, they are nearly always ones where, for example, the Planning and Development Act 2000 has extended into areas contiguous to local authority control zones and whatever. There is considerable merit in seeking to get the maximum employment yield from what can be done in the quickest possible term, driven on by organisations like the Marine Institute and the research institutions.

See this speech in context