Maritime Area Planning Bill 2021: Committee Stage
Seanad Éireann — 2021-12-14
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

It straightforwardly states that the Minister will be writing to say that there is an inconsistency and then it states that it does not need to be amended to avoid or mitigate an inconsistency. It does not say alternatives for avoidance or mitigation would be put in place. It is strictly a disregard clause. I have no trouble telling the Minister of State that it should not be able to bypass all of these factors. We should not have ministerial direction telling a competent authority that an inconsistency does not matter. That sets a poor precedent. Given that it was debated at such length in the Dáil, it should have been improved by the Department before it came here. I will press the amendment.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2021-12-14/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:49:57+00:00
Sitting date: 2021-12-14