Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We need to move on and do it. That is what this is about.

I will deal with a couple of the issues that were raised. Public participation is really important. Section 6 of the Bill has been amended to reflect that.

On the resourcing of MARA, I updated the Cabinet today on the establishment of the regulatory authority. An implementation committee will start in my Department in January. We have a budget of €2 million. We intend to move ahead with the appointment of a chairperson and an interim board, and to advertise for a CEO as well. I want MARA to be established in a skeletal form so that we can build upon it by the middle of 2022. That is what we are moving towards. I refer to the advertisements of those posts and the expertise required because it is very specialised, particularly on the planning side. It will take some time to get the right people, frankly, so we need to move on that and it will grow organically.

I take on board the points raised by Senators. We will deal with them on Committee Stage and Report Stages, which I expect to be taken on Thursday and Friday of this week.

Senator Kyne asked about the elements of the foreshore licensing regime currently operating that will be left. This Bill will effectively replace the Foreshore Act 1933 by taking everything out of it and putting it into MARA. The only exception to this is the piece relating to aquaculture, which is with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. My view is that this piece should be under the remit of MARA. That is being worked through with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine at present. In the short term, so as not to cause any difficulties in the area of aquaculture, it will be retained within the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. I believe that having one licensing authority for the marine is what we need. Effectively, about 90% to 95% of all the other functions under the 1933 Act will come under the remit of MARA, with that sole exception.

We are providing in the short term for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to be able to approve MAC applications in the interim period. Therefore, we can potentially move some of the applications that are already in the planning process along because it will probably take until January 2023 before the agency is fully incorporated, but it will be set up next year. We will have a CEO, a board and a chairperson.

I understand Senator Malcolm Byrne's point about the exclusion of certain groups of individuals from being part of MARA. I will take that point back. One can consider how local authorities will interact with MARA and that elected representatives will not be involved in planning decisions per se. I know the Senator has asked why we would pick on councillors, in that sense. We are not really, but I take his point and we will explain it in a bit more detail-----