Results 6,661-6,680 of 27,073 for speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Apologies.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Indeed.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Indeed, but a MAC may involve excluding some existing users from an area for a period of time.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Will the Minister of State clarify the point?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I appreciate that a lot happened in the 15 minutes that I was gone. Pardon me for that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Section 92 refers to the rehabilitation of the area subject to the MAC. It refers to the requirement to rehabilitate an area, which could include "the decommissioning of infrastructure; the removal of infrastructure; the partial removal of infrastructure; the re-use of infrastructure for the same or another purpose; the burying or encasing of infrastructure; and the removal of any deposited...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is possible to have a MAC and do absolutely nothing.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: To be clear, it is possible to have a MAC and to do absolutely nothing with it.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: As far as I am concerned, that is a problem. The Minister of State spelled out that certain things cannot be done under maritime area consent, but applicants for all the relevant projects, so-called, will now have to apply for maritime area consent. Is that correct? Will applicants now have to apply for maritime area consent?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay, but the public will have no input on whether that is granted. They will have no avenue for making submissions on that.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: During the planning process.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay. We have discussed this and my views on it are well known. I will signal, for the record, that even if you cannot do anything, these projects are physically doing things now that will get consents that are impacting on fishermen-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay, but even for the occupation of the area, to use the Minister of State's phrase-----

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Yes. I do not see why these things would not be notified in some way in a local newspaper, for example. The public are entitled to know if a usage will impact on a port, harbour or beach because often these things happen and people are raging after the event. The Minister of State may consider from the legislative height of the Oireachtas that this seems trivial but often these things are...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The right to occupy it. To me , that is pre-empting proper assessment of the areas they are occupying as to whether those areas should even be up for consideration for certain types of activity. I will state that for the record. If we had had designated marine protected areas, and I know the Minister of State said it is a different process that will come later, some of the areas applicants...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The marine area regulatory authority will be able to ask the High Court to stay proceedings regarding an application for a judicial review about a decision to grant a maritime area consent. Why should MARA be allowed to ask the court to set aside an application for a judicial review around a maritime area consent until after it has made its decision? I ask the Minister of State to explain in...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would like to get the Minister of State's view on the question of proximity to the coastline for the of granting licences for activities in the marine and the protection of heritage before licences are granted. We have suggested that we should not be granting licences for certain types of industrial development, particularly industrial offshore wind but also other major industrial-style...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Unusually, I find myself agreeing with the Minister of State on this amendment. With regard to the central argument and thought behind it, I do not in any way concede, but the amendment, as currently drafted, is casting its net a bit too wide, to use a maritime metaphor. As long we do not keep using the same metaphors over and over again, it is all right. The amendment would prohibit...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (9 Nov 2021)

Richard Boyd Barrett: The section relates to usage exempted from the requirement for a licence. Unlike the maritime area consents, this relates to real activity and the freeing of an application from the requirement for a licence if the Minister decides that its impact is minimal. That is essentially what we are talking about. To use the language of the section, this relates to usages that "would not offend...