Results 4,941-4,960 of 9,814 for speaker:Steven Matthews

Written Answers — Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government: Planning Issues (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: 346. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the details regarding SI 664 of 2022, Planning and Development Act 2000 (Exempted Development) (Number 5) Regulations 2022; if the process whereby this was introduced will be outlined; the reason for same; and if a detailed explanatory note will be provided to all Members of the Houses of the Oireachtas, supplementary to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: School Accommodation (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: 469. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if her attention has been drawn to concerns regarding the lack of accommodation for practical subjects and other facilities in a school (details supplied); and if she will make a statement on the matter. [4723/23]

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: Today we are meeting to resume discussion of the general scheme of the marine protected areas Bill 2023. This is the second meeting on this matter. The third meeting will be held on Thursday and then we will prepare our pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS, report including our recommendations from these meetings. I welcome Professor Tasman Crowe who is professor of marine ecology, director of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: Head 16 covers a little of what Senator Fitzpatrick is talking about. The question is whether to constitute this as a permanent advisory body or have somebody come in from time to time.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: There are a couple of issues that Deputy Ó Broin did not have time to get to. We will come back to them in subsequent rounds of questioning. I note that the committee last week raised the issue around the four-week consultation period with the Department. It said it would look at that. I do not think, in respect of the 2030 targets, that extending the four-week consultation period to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: This may be a very obvious question but the area we are talking about is the area we have defined under the Maritime Jurisdiction Act. This is what we describe as our sea area, being seven times the size of our landmass area. Does that put a great deal of pressure on us compared with a country that might have a large landmass but a small sea area in respect of its 30% designations? Will...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: That is fair enough. I just wanted to clarify that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: For clarity for people who may not know, how is inshore defined versus offshore in nautical miles?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: That leads me on to where we were up to quite recently, where we only had 2%, or slightly more than that, of special areas of conservation, SACs, and special protection area, SPA, designations for the most part, which we were calling marine protected areas. We moved then to 8%, where we are at the moment, and we are approaching 10%, but we want to reach this target of 30% by 2030. We often...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: On the advisory group, at today's meeting we intended to invite Professor Crowe, obviously, but also to invite what I would loosely classify as user groups, such as fishers and commercial operators as represented by Wind Energy Ireland. Unfortunately, none of those was able to attend today. In the work that was done in the stakeholder engagement and the advisory group, which was...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: I do not want him to speak for them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: I just want to ensure they were listened to.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: Fishing can be a difficult and uncertain job much of the time. I can understand what might be perceived as further barriers or further difficulties in what is already a difficult scenario.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: It was very broad. All voices were listened to and heard. Returning to the point Deputy Higgins made, perhaps Professor Crowe would come back to us with the issues he raised. I know he spoke about four weeks in head 9. If there are other things that stick out in the general scheme about where we could improve public consultation and have a proper public consultation, it would be helpful...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: A point was raised about stakeholder engagement and the identification or designation. They are two different processes and possibly would have different stakeholders, some of whom might be more concerned about the designation than they are about the identification. Perhaps this is something we could look at.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: I thank Deputy McAuliffe. Deputy Ó Broin wishes to come back in. To be helpful in terms of timelines, we have our final meeting on this on Thursday and we will be aiming for completion of our pre-legislative scrutiny report by 21 February. If Professor Crowe were to make suggestions, it would be helpful to get them a couple of days before the deadline. We would appreciate whatever he...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (resumed) (31 Jan 2023)

Steven Matthews: I am sorry; I will also ask a question. The phrase "up to 30%" to me reads that we can do 30%, but no more. Could we have 35%?