Results 8,861-8,880 of 15,060 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, I asked a question relating to sections 18(2), (3) and (4).

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I am not being awkward. On the timeline, the public participation statement is triggered when the review happens. The review has to happen within six years. The Minister of State indicated it will happen sooner than that, but we do not know when. That means there could be a period of one, two or three years without that public participation statement. Meanwhile, marine spatial plans are...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is important for us in order that we and the public are clear on it. Will marine spatial plans only start to be developed following the triggering of the review of the national marine planning framework and the consequent publication of the public participation statement? If not, MSPs could be developed outside of a public participation statement.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: The MSPs can only happen after the triggering.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: No MSPs can be developed until after the review of the national marine planning framework is put in place and after the public participation process.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I think the Minister of State is as confused as I am on this crucial point. If we understand the legislation right, the public participation statement only gets developed once the review of the national marine planning framework is instituted. We are trying to ascertain whether the MSPs, DMAPs or anything else can be developed before the review of the national marine framework is triggered...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: This is not a criticism of anybody in this room but the fact such a fundamental part of this entire architecture is unclear at this point in the conversation gives me some cause for concern. I understand "reasonable steps" is a formulation used. Surely it would be reasonable to have some indication of what "reasonable" is as otherwise, it is completely at the discretion of the Minister. On...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I get that, but I much prefer the scope of action for Ministers to be written down somewhere, whether by way of regulations or legislation.

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: We then have a consequent problem because section 18(5), in referring to the regulations I queried in section 18(4), provides that the Minister shall only "have regard to" the various measures rather than having to comply with them. The word "comply" is much stronger. Having listened to the Minister of State, I am more confused now than I was. I appreciate he will come back to us in more...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 79: In page 28, to delete lines 19 to 21 and substitute the following: "(5) A MSP shall— (a) in accordance with Article 8 of the MSP Directive— (i) identify the spatial and temporal distribution of relevant existing and future activities and uses in the marine waters of the Marine Spatial Plan the competent authority is preparing, which contribute...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I move amendment No. 81: In page 28, between lines 26 and 27, to insert the following: "(b) take account of the assessment reports for the state provided in accordance with the following: (i) Article 17 of the Maritime Strategy Framework Directive and consultation responses thereon; (ii) Article 16 and 17 of the Habitats Directive and consultation responses thereon; (iii) Article 11...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I also apologise for being late. It is one of those days when we are all running around trying to catch up with ourselves. I am sure if I had more time to catch a breath, I could have found a pithy remark at the start about co-existence between ourselves and the Minister of State but it is good to see he is accepting at least one of the amendments. It is not a small change of language but...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: That will be the case for any consent application once MARA is established. Deputy Boyd Barrett is referring to legacy projects. People are looking for some reassurance that the consent process by which the Minister is going to provide consent for those legacy projects will have the same level of scrutiny and independence because that process is not outlined in the same way. That is the...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: I fully support the amendment. If the Minister of State thought, for example, two years was better than one year and wanted to make the case, I am sure we would be open to being reasonable about that, subject to whether it fits the Minister of State's definition of reasonable or not. Given that we have already passed the national marine planning framework, NMPF, some time ago, six years...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: It is good we are all good-humoured in this committee. I can picture the Minister of State's overworked and underpaid officials late last night writing the briefing notes and having a little smile as they added that particular line. We appreciate the humour, and I mean that genuinely. I accept one year is too short but I also accept six years is too long. Would the Minister of State...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: Perfect. Is that something separate to the review of the national marine planning framework?

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: As with the two previous amendments, these next two amendments, Nos. 86 and 87, are technically linked. They were originally one amendment and were separated by the Bills Office, but the Minister of State and his advisers know that. Again, one thing that might help to clarify some of the confusion some of us are experiencing would be if the Minister of State in his response, and in as...

Select Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage (Resumed) (2 Nov 2021)

Eoin Ó Broin: Excellent.