Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 24 November 2020
379. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the degree to which his Department has engaged with stakeholders on environmental issues; and the progress to date in this regard. [38687/20]
View answerMy Department has responsibility for environmental issues spanning many areas of our functional responsibilities including Water Sector Policy, Marine Environment, Foreshore, Planning Legislation and Policy, Built Environment, Climatology, Forecasting, National Parks and Wildlife Service, Built Heritage and Peatlands.
My Department engages with stakeholders on such environmental issues in various ways. Such engagement may take the form of standing consultative committees or groups, written consultations, specific meetings or briefings, for example.
Advisory groups such as the Water Advisory Body, the National Planning Framework Advisory Group and the National Marine Planning Framework Stakeholder Advisory Group have been established to facilitate engagement across a wide spectrum of stakeholders.
As there is such a broad array of environmental issues being dealt with in my Department, it is not possible to provide details of each stakeholder engagement but, if the Deputy wishes to submit a question about a specific matter, I may be in a position to provide more details. Details of all public consultations undertaken by my Department are available on the website at https://www.housing.gov.ie/search/archived/current/type/public-consultations.
