Lots of people have submitted planning applications. Why go through the expense of all that if you did not think it was viable from day one? I am not saying there are not issues with viability in respect of apartment buildings and density. We are prepared to examine all that. However, there are enormous amounts of zoning in the country and planning permission has been granted.

Many other people are building.

I thank the Deputy for raising this serious issue. Without question, the devastation in Killarney National Park over the weekend, which we all saw on our television screens, was absolutely devastating. It was heartbreaking to see such a beautiful area impacted so severely. It is estimated that about 2,500 ha, which is close to half of the terrestrial area of the habitat, have been extensively damaged. As the Deputy said, that is having a severe impact on flora and fauna. More work is being done to quantify the exte…

I will feed back the Deputy's comments to the Minister and Department. I think 60 is a significant increase. Funding for the NPWS doubled in the budget. This is an area in which I am interested. I want to support the Minister and Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, in respect of the NPWS to give it stronger capacity in future in terms of our wildlife, national parks and biodiversity. The Deputy has made a very good suggestion on utilising this terrible event perhaps to provide for a specific research-type project tha…

I wish to notify the House that I have formally assigned responsibility for the Department of Justice to the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys. As I signalled to the House last month, this assignment arises in the context of the Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, taking a period of six months' maternity leave. She will, of course, remain a member of Government without portfolio during that period. I take this opportunity to wish the Minister, Deputy McEntee, the very best.

On the taxi situation that has been raised, I have no intention of becoming involved in any operational decisions that have been made. The Government is very conscious of the difficult challenges that taxi drivers have faced as a result of the pandemic, and has provided a number of supports to taxi drivers. I accept that they may not consider them to be sufficient but we have provided them with a range of supports and are prepared to examine their situation again. I ask Deputy Mattie McGrath to withdraw the remarks…

Gardaí have to make operational decisions. Those operational decisions are made in the unarmed police force in this country that has stood us well and served the country very well throughout the years. That reference should be withdrawn, irrespective of to whom it applies, given the appalling atrocities that Nazis committed and that Hitler committed. We are a far different country from that. It is not good enough that remarks like that would just slip off the tongue in condemning operational decisions that have bee…

In regard to the national marine planning framework, NMPF, Bill, the European maritime spatial planning directive requires all member states to publish and implement marine spatial plans by quarter 1 of 2021. I do not want government by paralysis. We have a cross-Government approach and we have been four years involved in developing Ireland's first marine spatial planning framework. This is good and we need to get moving in terms of the resources and how we protect those resources in our seas, and do it in an order…

In terms of the assertions that have been made, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage has made itself available to the Oireachtas joint committee throughout this process. It is not correct to say the legislation is being rushed through. The draft NMPF was launched in November 2019 and officials were invited to appear before the Oireachtas joint committee on 25 March 2021 for a private briefing, as well as appearing before a public sitting of the joint committee for further scrutiny of the NMPF on…

The draft NMPF was laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas on 24 March 2021-----

-----and approved by Seanad Éireann on 19 April 2021. It is time for this House to get this country moving on a whole range of areas and stop trying to slow everything down and inject a paralysis into the affairs of the State-----

-----which is becoming a feature of what goes on here.

There was a lot of populist rhetoric-----

-----in what was articulated by Deputy Michael Collins and others. There is no attack on fishermen. This is the State's marine spatial plan. In the context of the issues raised by Deputy Verona Murphy, this is not legislation, it is a plan. The absence of a proper spatial plan has led to many of the issues Deputies have raised. The country has not had a marine spatial plan to date. This plan has been four years in the making. Deputy Ó Broin said it should go to another committee and yet another committee. Let us ke…

-----but let us never make a decision on anything. Let us always try to exploit something for electoral advantage, which is what Deputy Ó Broin is doing. There is no question about that.

I am entitled to make a political assertion, just as the Deputy is.

The committee concluded its business on this and asked that it proceed. This was before the Oireachtas committee on 25 March and 6 April. The assertion that it has not been before the committee is false. It has been before the committee.

There is an obligation on the State. The European maritime spatial planning directive requires all member states to publish and implement their marine spatial plans by the first quarter of 2021. Even Deputy Ó Broin, despite all the posturing, had to admit in the end that, in the main, it is a good plan. Of course, it is a good plan. It is a comprehensive plan and it is one we should proceed with to protect our marine resources and to create a proper context for what happens in our marine territory and resource. Tha…

Regional public events were held in respect of the national marine planning framework as far back as 2018. There were five regional public events.

There were a further eight events, seven of them held in coastal locations throughout the country. The idea that people have not been consulted is not true. Elected representatives were invited to each of the meetings, regional and local. The impression is then given that there was no consultation and it is being rushed through.