Amendments Nos. 32b, 33 and 33a are related and may be discussed together.
SECTION 61.
I move amendment No. 32b:
In page 31, between lines 37 and 38, to insert the following:
"(c) and the provisions of the relevant County Development Plan in regard to designations and infrastructure of the adjacent foreshore,".
Section 61 deals with matters which the licensing authority must take into consideration when deciding whether to grant a licence. It should be incumbent on the licensing authority to consider the provisions of the county development plan in regard to designations and infrastructure of the adjacent foreshore. The Minister will accept that certain matters are not normally within the remit of the Department of the Marine and that the provisions of the county development plan are important in relation to physical planning. The licensing authority should be required to take any specific provisions relating to the area affected by the licence into account. Licences have been granted in areas with an inadequate road infrastructure and major problems have developed because huge trucks have been unable to gain access to the farms. These and other factors should be taken into account by the licensing authority.
I have no objection in principle to Deputy Molloy's suggestion. Local authorities often drawn the attention of the Department of the Marine and the Minister to the provisions of a county development plan. I recall a decision to refuse a licence being turned as a result of a case made by the local authority in relation to the provisions of the county development plan. I thought paragraph (c), "the particular statutory status, if any, of the place or waters,", included the county development plan. I am prepared to look at Deputy Molloy's amendment between now and Report Stage with a view to seeing how it can be accommodated.
I take it the Minister is favourably disposed to my amendment.
Yes. I have no problem with the county development plan being taken into account.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
I move amendment No. 33:
In page 31, line 45 and in page 32, lines 1 to 8, to delete paragraph (f) and substitute the following:
"(f) the effect or likely effect on the environment generally in the vicinity of the place or water on or in which that aquaculture is or is proposed to be carried on——
(i) on the foreshore, or
(ii) at any other place, if there is or would be no discharge of trade or sewage effluent within the meaning of, and requiring a licence under section 4 of, the Local Government (Water Pollution) Act, 1977, and".
This amendment is to clarify that the matters spelled out in subsections (a) to (e) and (g), as well as the effect or likely effect on the environment generally in the vicinity of the place and waters on the foreshore and the places other than on the foreshore where no effluent discharge licence from the local authority is required, will apply when considering licence applications and appeals.
Amendment agreed to.
I move amendment No. 33a:
In page 32, between lines 10 and 11, to insert the following:
"(h) the views of the appropriate Regional Fisheries Board, the Central Fisheries Board, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Local Planning Authority.".
We made an amendment to section 10(f) that the relevant statutory bodies, which include the bodies named in the amendment, would be consulted in advance of a licence decision.
Amendment, by leave, withdrawn.
Section 61, as amended, agreed to.