Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We welcome the broad thrust of this Bill. It reflects a long-standing desire of all sorts of groups, stakeholders, users of the harbour to have more involvement in its development, protection and improvement. I stated that on Committee Stage and the Minister acknowledged it. I do not want it to be just a nominal move in that direction but to be a tangible change. This centres on whether it remains in reality at a remove from any real public control by elected representatives, even if it comes under the council’s remit, which it has been. There was a bizarre situation at council meetings when the elected councillors who were on the harbour board walked out of council meetings when the harbour was being discussed because there was a conflict of interest when the board was a corporate entity. We did not have oversight. If we retain the corporate, separate, subsidiary model, then even though nominally the harbour comes under council control and is integrated with the town, which we all want, it is still a separate entity, which remains unaccountable, notwithstanding the reviews the Minister has talked about and the fact that it could come before the council, both of which I welcome. Let us make sure, in so far as there are always people giving advice and input into these matters, that we have a standing arrangement whereby there is a genuine stakeholders group that the elected councillors and chief executive officers, CEOs should consult with. I agree the selection of that group and who decides what is bona fide will be done at local level. I am asking that the legislation state that at national level - Deputy Deasy echoed this point - it should be a requirement that the local authority has such a users and stakeholders group informing the discussion about the future, protection and development of the harbours.

See this speech in context