Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 February 2012
157 Deputy Dara Calleary asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will develop an integrated coastal zone management plan for the Donegal Bay area, including Inver Bay, to resolve outstanding issues in the bay and protect localised fish stocks. [5961/12]
View answerThe Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2011 already provide that a planning authority's development plan may include objectives for, inter alia:
Regulating, restricting or controlling development in areas at risk of flooding (whether inland or coastal), erosion and other natural hazards;
Regulating, restricting and controlling the development of coastal areas and development in the vicinity of inland waterways; and
Regulating, restricting and controlling development on the foreshore, or any part of the foreshore.
I understand that a number of planning authorities have already included objectives for integrated coastal zone management in their development plans. The drafting of the General Scheme of a Bill to modernise the foreshore consent system and integrate it within the wider planning system is being progressed by my Department. It is intended that the proposed legislation will, inter alia, require coastal planning authorities to set mandatory objectives for integrated coastal zone management in their development plans as part of a wider plan-led approach to the foreshore. Issues relating specifically to the protection of fish stocks and other fishery related concerns are a matter for the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
