Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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671. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the names and relevant expertise of each member of the marine licence vetting committee involved in both the statutory appropriate assessment screening and the statutory environmental impact assessment screening on a project (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3430/18]

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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The following is a list of the members and their organisations of the Marine Licence Vetting Committee (MLVC) that completed the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Appropriate Assessment (AA) screening reports for the Marine Institute (MI) foreshore lease application in respect to the proposed development at Spiddal, Co. Galway (FS006566):

1. Mr Richard Cronin (Chair), Senior Adviser, Water and Marine Advisory Unit, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government

2. Mr P J Shaw,  Eng. Inspector Grade I, Water and Marine Advisory Unit, Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government

3. Mr Eamonn Kelly,  Planning Senior Advisor, Forward Planning, Department of Housing, Planning, and Local Government

4. Captain Nicolas Cantwell, Marine Safety Directorate,  Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport (Marine Survey Office)

5. Mr Karl Brady, Archaeologist Grade III, National Monuments Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht

6. Mr Declan MacGabhann, Sea Fisheries Protection Authority

7. Dr James J. King, Fisheries Biologist, Inland Fisheries Ireland

The Nature Conservation Unit of the National Parks and Wildlife Service, Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht was also invited to participate in the MLVC. While they did not wish to participate, they did provide their views on the project by way of a submission as a prescribed body under the process.

Since participation in the MLVC is voluntary, members are invited to participate rather than being appointed. Members are representatives of their respective organisations and it is up to those organisations to ensure that their staff have the requisite knowledge and expertise to perform their duties including participating in technical evaluations of applications.

My Department’s internal advisers that participated in the MLVC assessment of this application have the appropriate professional qualifications and experience commensurate with my Department's role in foreshore consenting.

All aspects of the application were assessed including the application form and supporting documentation, environmental reports, submissions received through the prescribed bodies and public consultation process as well as the applicant’s responses. The assessment processes provide for determinations of how likely a project might be to have significant effects on the environment and whether there are likely to be any significant effects on the Conservation Objectives of the ten pertinent Natura 2000 sites.