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

This is all about access to justice and the right of concerned parties and particularly NGOs which would have a particular concern about the potential impact of human activity or development in the marine area if consents are given and decisions are made which they think could be detrimental to that part of the marine environment. That access to justice is important. I do not really buy the narrative that we often hear, especially from the developers on land, that the big problem is all of the people who object. This is even though the developers get multiple planning permissions and in many cases they either do bad development or they do not bother developing at all.

7 o’clock

I do not buy the narrative that giving people the right to object and to go to court is a problem. It is imperative that people have access to justice in matters that have an impact on their environment, in this case the marine environment.

I do not see the month issue as a problem. It is about facilitating groups of people who may come together in the context of a particular proposed development. Until something is proposed, many people do not know it is coming and may not have organised themselves, but they may have legitimate concerns about it and establish themselves in response to that. I do not have a problem with that and I do not see the concerns the Minister of State suggests. This is about trying to not have the chilling effect of costs potentially being unloaded on people who seek justice, particularly when, most of the time, they will be dealing with big corporations or big commercial interests that have plenty of money, plenty of legal wherewithal and so on. What we are trying to do is ensure they have that right of recourse. As I said, we do not accept the Bill's position on the MAC, or the right to occupy, even if it does not allow for development. We think it could have displacement effects on that particular area and, therefore, have environmental impacts. Therefore, we believe those access to justice provisions and to have no deterrence to that are legitimate and vital requests on our part.

See this speech in context