Results 6,321-6,340 of 15,009 for speaker:Eoin Ó Broin

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: That is the decision of the Chair.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The language is “up to 30%” rather than “30% by 2030”, so that gives some wriggle room. Why that softer language and what would be the implications, particularly from an EU enforcement point of view, if we were not to meet that 30% by 2030?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The question was on what the timeframe was. While the designation process was happening, was there no consideration of pending or interim designations? I am asking about the overall timeline of the designation process but also interim measures. When discussing the marine planning legislation, for example, and given that we had a series of legacy wind farm projects that had reached their...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The explanatory note for head 13 reads: "rapid identification of areas which are not suitable for Offshore Renewable Energy". Given that there must be some assessment by the Government when the maritime areas of consent, MACs, are being issued by the Minister, this assumes that those sites are unlikely to cross head 13. These would be other sites. Is this a fair interpretation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Regarding legacy projects, one of the concerns with the Bill has nothing to do with opposition to renewable energy, as renewable energy is something we all want. Given that MACs are in the process of being issued, or have been issued, by the Minister, where head 13 refers to the "rapid identification of areas which are not suitable for Offshore Renewable Energy", I presume we are not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I have to step out for a second.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes. I thank the Chair. I apologise, again, for having to leave as we have a clash with the Minister, Deputy Darragh O’Brien, in the Chamber, which is unfortunate. I am going to go back over some of my questions. If our witnesses have dealt with them in my absence, please do not repeat the replies. Let me know, and I will read these replies in the transcripts because I do not want...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does Mr. Cronin hope for the qualification threshold or elements of it to be set out in legislation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Does Mr. Cronin envisage it as a process whereby third parties might have an opportunity for input without making it overly cumbersome or time-consuming?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: With respect to that, one thing that we have learned from terrestrial planning and our long consideration of issues around substitute consent is that while many things are possible, unless legislation sets them out and, in certain circumstances, mandates either exploration or potential recommendation of them, they are less likely to happen. While we may finally have a substitute consent...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I accept all that. I will make one other analogy. We have much experience of terrestrial planning and building control. There are bad practices in our recent past that we need to learn from. For example, people who build buildings on land have a legal obligation to build in compliance with the standards. Two weeks ago, the Government announced a €2.5 billion bill for the taxpayer...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: As somebody who has been so involved with building defects, I will labour the point. We now have a €5 billion bill for building defects, both defective blocks and houses, apartments and duplexes. We have had good building control standards over the years. There is a legal obligation for people to comply and there is a mechanism if they do not comply to take them to court but it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The Department would not find an objection from most committee members to the idea of priorities because the Department cannot do all of this work at the same time. In areas where there are MACs or other potential significant economic marine activities, there are two values of clear priorities. First, it avoids accidental or intentional additional marine biodiversity degradation as a result...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Yes, I caught that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Did Mr. Cronin refer to the involvement of Marine Institute or bodies with environmental expertise?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: I will check the transcript. Perfect.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: The requirement is not consultation but meaningful consultation, which is a different kettle of fish. Many of us are in large organisations that have the capacity to have researchers help us to be informed when we come into forums such as this. Large industry bodies, whether they are fisheries industries or offshore wind, have those capacities as does large environmental NGOs. Very often...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Excellent.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: It was on monitoring post-designation. I am asking about monitoring of the network and the individual marine protected areas. Who is doing it and how is it being done? What level of resourcing is there for that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government: General Scheme of the Marine Protected Areas Bill 2023: Discussion (26 Jan 2023)

Eoin Ó Broin: Again, what is being monitored? Is it the network? Is it individual marine protected areas or portions of them? How is the monitoring envisaged?