This is an important issue for the northside of Dublin. To put the matter in perspective, it is proposed to take 52 acres from Dublin Bay and convert it to real estate for port development. The Minister of State will know the scale of 52 acres. However, to put it in context, it is equivalent to a ground level car park for 32,500 cars, which is a massive amount of land. There have been no pre-application consultations with key groups such as residents' associations and public representatives. This proposal was drafted without proper consultation with local residents. The Minister of State knows that over the years the residents have objected to developments such as the underground gas caverns which were proposed at one stage and which thankfully did not go ahead.
As a result of the tight timescale – only one month was provided for submissions, the advertisement of which many people were not alerted to – a huge number of people who would like to have made submissions missed the cut-off date. More importantly, many of the submissions were made in a hasty manner without the opportunity to properly research and reply to the issues raised in the environmental impact statement. The port company is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act so technical reports were not accessible to the public. The time which should be given to citizens to research such a modern project was not allowed.
The legislation governing the decision about a project which will have a huge environmental impact on the bay is ancient and anachronistic. The Foreshore Act does not provide for public hearings, adequate time for third parties to make objections or an appeal mechanism. A project of such scale and with so many implications would not be allowed with such procedure in another state. This legislation dates from a time when the role of citizens was minute and is now inappropriate. I ask the Minister to extend the time allowed for submissions and, even though it is not his statutory obligation, to institute public hearings before he makes a decision. People have a right to express their views in a modern democratic society and to have them heard by technical experts before a Minister makes a decision. Otherwise, a nonsense would be made of long-established planning procedures where one has an opportunity to make objections and there are hearings to ensure a proper decision is reached.
I am concerned about the thinking behind this proposal. It regards Dublin Bay as an appendage to the port to be absorbed whenever the necessities of the port demand it. People should look on the bay as an amenity. We are unique in Dublin in having a bay such as this. It should be looked on as an amenity which is worth preserving. I put it to the Minister of State that given the pace of growth in Dublin and the congestion created in bringing 50% of the country's trade into the heart of the city, it must be questioned whether it would be better for Dublin Port Company to intensify use of its assets, using them for longer hours and at off-peak times, rather than looking for more land from valuable Dublin Bay resources as it is now trying to do.
