Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 4:

In page 10, line 49, after "designation" to insert the following:

"through a formal public consultation process with a fixed timeframe".

This is the nub of the issue for me. If we are serious about learning from mistakes made during the fiasco of trying to bring ashore gas from a very significant gas find in County Mayo, a situation where almost everybody to date has been a loser, we must ensure, from the very outset of a process, that there is public consultation. We must ensure we do not merely say, as the wording of the legislation stands at present, that we will give interested persons, organisations and other bodies an opportunity to make representations but also that we will be proactive in informing and consulting people and listening to what they have to say. That is the basis of my amendment.

I recognise the Minister of State has introduced his own amendment to a later section of the Bill, on page 14. I shall wait to hear what he has to say before withdrawing my amendment. However, I am very serious when I say to him that we must ensure we push information at people. Otherwise, conspiracy theories develop which lead to all sorts of problems. Communities dig in their heels and find very imaginative ways of preventing legitimate projects from moving ahead. We must ensure that the mistakes which were made by many people in the Corrib situation, including the company and policy makers, do not happen again. This is for the benefit of communities as well as for the country and will bring energy security benefits to consumers by bringing oil and gas ashore.

See this speech in context