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

It is not agreed. I held back on speaking to Thursday's business until now. The Ceann Comhairle knows I raised this matter at the Business Committee last Thursday. The idea we will pass a motion on the national marine planning framework on the basis of a 50-minute debate is utterly unacceptable. For the Taoiseach to suggest that we are somehow trying to paralyse the process is utter nonsense. Unless we have proper planning of the marine environment and offshore development, we will end up with the sort of wild west we had in housing that led to the crash. It is happening as we speak and fishermen are being ridden over roughshod in Dublin Bay and the Codling Bank by private companies that have grabbed the offshore and that are only interested in profit. There is no proper regulation in this regard. There are serious threats to biodiversity in the offshore, particularly the near offshore. This matter requires proper scrutiny and it should not just come under one committee; any committee with an interest in it should be allowed to scrutinise it and stakeholders should be allowed to give evidence. The idea that the Government would try to push this through with no debate at all or, as is the case now, with five minutes for each party to contribute, is completely unacceptable.

I reiterate, in reference to a previous matter, that the taxi drivers would have been in their cars. An operational decision was not made in this regard. Rather, it what is happening is political policing. We should have a statement from the Minister for Justice about this matter.

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