Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 21:

In page 27, to delete lines 27 to 36.

I am open to clarification on this. I had a concern that, where approvals were granted for applications before new subsections were in place, some such approvals may have been granted under previous regimes which did not have many of the considerations we are putting into place in this regime. I understand there is a desire to maintain that but I worry that inappropriate approvals may have been granted and may effectively continue under this carve-out.

I am also conscious of some of the activities and usages involved. We have had situations where people have been granted exploration licences and been approved for certain activities. Based on that previous approval, they claim, I would say incorrectly, legitimate expectations of continuance and so forth. I want to give the State as much scope as possible to ensure best practice. If best practice required the revocation of an approval which turned out to be contrary to our overarching goals, I want to make sure that scope is there. I do not know if the Minister of State can comment again. I am uncertain on this and may bring forward a more detailed amendment on Report Stage on it but I wanted to check the scope was still there and we did not have situations where we are not told we are tied in to bad practices that may have received approval under a previous regime.