Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

I would like to be of assistance to the Minister. He is correct about the revocation of licences. However, the difficulty relates to funding. People go through the planning process and acquire the foreshore licence but they cannot get a letter of comfort from the Department stating that the licence will not be revoked or stating the conditions on which it could be revoked. I will take the Minister up on his offer.

I welcome the fact this is dealt with on a case by case basis but it does not deal with the overall difficulty. It is not that licences have been revoked but given the constraints financial institutions face and the fact the Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland issued a directive to all banks in July to tighten up on lending practices, there is a difficulty with this existing clause in respect of loans.

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