Environment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2025: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2026-02-25
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Malcolm Noonan (GP), Agricultural Panel

I do, quickly. I will not delay the proceedings. I absolutely appreciate that. I have had engagement with IBEC on this. Certainty is really important and by leaving the "shall endeavour to", it leaves it very open-ended. Many of the challenges we are having with licensing and with planning are not because of judicial reviews necessarily or environmental objections. They are actually because of resources across various agencies of the State such as the EPA, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and so on. By having a very definite "shall", instead of "shall endeavour to", it certainly puts an onus on the State and focuses minds on addressing that resource issue. We all have deadlines to meet in various projects, etc., but when the deadline is there, we know it is looming and that in itself should be a driver in pushing for the resources required in various agencies to get the job done. I accept the Minister of State’s bona fides on this and the fact he would go back and revisit it were it not working but the time to strengthen this legislation is here, today. I ask that the Minister of State to give consideration to accepting these amendments.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-02-25/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:41+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-25