Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I object in the strongest possible terms to the way in which the marine planning framework is being dealt with. I also flatly dispute the Taoiseach's presentation of how the committee has dealt with the matter. The draft plan, which will have a legally binding effect on our marine territory, which is seven times the size of our landmass, was only published a number of weeks ago. The committee had one very detailed briefing from officials from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I thank them for that. Members of the committee wanted one further scrutiny session.

We wanted the national inshore fishermen to make a presentation to the committee and to hear from environmental non-governmental organisations which have concerns about marine biodiversity. We proposed that this could take place during the recess week when the committee was not meeting. If that had been facilitated, we would now be dealing with the substantive matter.

There are grave concerns about the impact of aspects of this plan on biodiversity and on the community of inshore fishermen. I cannot understand why the Government would deny proper scrutiny. The consequence of not doing this right is the type of paralysis the Taoiseach outlined. If the Government makes a mess of this, applications for much-needed offshore wind generation, something we all support, will end up being as the subject of a judicial review brought by environmental groups or inshore fishermen because their interests are not being adequately protected. This is another example of a Government that does not want scrutiny. It is not just the housing committee that wanted to deal with this matter, the Joint Committee on Climate Action also wanted to deal with it. My reading of section 72 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2018 is that any committee could consider this matter and if a committee lays a report or an opinion before the House, the Minister would have to have legal regard to it. Perhaps the reason the Government does not want scrutiny is that it is fearful it will expose some of the weaknesses in a planning framework that is mainly positive, and that it would be forced to act to protect marine biodiversity and inshore fishermen.

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