Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Citing war is never a great reason for doing things. It is not a good rationale, certainly in terms of the environment. One of the things the war is currently being used to justify on the part of Ireland’s energy strategy is buying coal from Colombia with massive environmental and human rights breaches. We have somehow justified that and used the war to justify it, and that is inexcusable from any environmental or human rights perspective. It is not a matter of “It is war - anything goes.” The standards need to be higher, clearer and more consistent, if anything.

I am very open on the DMAP approach but the problem is the sequencing. We look at the legislative schedule every year. This Oireachtas has been here since 2020 and we are in 2024. Marine protected areas has been sitting on the schedule and we have not published the legislation. That is why I recognise there may be overlaps. Certain parts of DMAP may be moving in parallel with the processes of designation. However, we have not published the legislation on marine protected areas. That is ludicrous. We have done 50 million new manoeuvres in respect of maritime planning, including, as I said, this whole new transfer between Departments yet somehow marine protected areas legislation is sitting there on the schedule as something that will be published.

I have two or three further questions. First, will the marine protected area legislation also now be moving over to the Department of the environment or will that still sit within the Department of housing? Is that function moving across? Are they linked? If it is moving across, what is the timeline? If it is not moving across, what is the timeline and what are the plans for engagement so that we do not have two bits of the maritime planning process and marine protected area moving separately in parallel in separate Departments when we know there is some plan of how they would work together? I would really like to know what the timeline is for marine protected area legislation to be published. Who will lead that? Will it be the Minister of State’s Department? Will it be the Department of housing? How is the connection between those two Departments planned?

This relates to another area which relates to the transfer of functions. One area that is in much of our other planning legislation, not the DMAP legislation, is particular functions for the Minister for heritage.I originally had a lot of concern about heritage being put with housing because it created a tension between a Minister who is never meant to interfere in planning and the Minister for heritage, who has very particular functions in relation to planning. How is that engagement with the Minister for heritage envisaged following this transfer? Will it default to how it operated previously? Is there any sense of how that engagement is likely to take place? What are the current threads?

I have seen this in other Departments, as has the Minister of State. I formerly sat on the disability committee, when responsibility for disability was to move across Departments. We were hearing about that move for two years but nothing was happening. I am sorry to dive in on what may seem technical. It is not technical, however. This is about the nuts and bolts of how things will actually work. I would like to know how this will work, specifically as regards the relationship with the Minister for heritage and his functions in respect of heritage, which is not just about environmental heritage but includes many marine heritage issues too. I also ask for clarification regarding the question I asked on where the marine protected areas will be led from.