Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 1 is necessary because the State has failed over many years to properly legislate for the substitute consent process and ensure what are, effectively, retrospective environmental impact assessments have enough community input and scrutiny as a fresh one carried out today. The cost of not bothering to do this has brought misery to the community of Derrybrien and many others. Ultimately, the taxpayer will end up paying €15 million in fines that the European Union levied against Ireland by the end of the year.

The amendment, which the Minister has read out in full, gives the public and affected communities a say at all stages of the substitute consent process. It also allows access to all of documentation and evidence submitted by applicants at earlier stages. The cost of not doing this has led to significant fines by the European Union.This amendment ensures that we have as much community input and scrutiny in those applications as any application that would be carried out today.