A petition submitted by People Before Profit Councillor Melisa Halpin on behalf of the Save Our Seafront campaign will be discussed at the Oireachtas Public Service Oversight and Petitions Committee this afternoon.
The petition was submitted prior to Providence Resources subsequently relinquished the foreshore licence granted for the Kish Bank however significant questions remain over why the licence was granted by the Minister for the Environment and the planning process for development on the foreshore and the Maritime area.
Providence Resources have made public statements suggesting they will re-apply at some point to develop an oil-rig at the controversial location in Dublin Bay. The Dublin Array Project also proposes a massive windfarm on the Kish Bank at close proximity to the seashore – a proposal already generating concern among communities in the wider Dublin Bay area. For these reasons Deputy Boyd Barrett intends to re-assert the relevance of the petition and also intends to challenge the government’s claim that the upcoming Maritime Area and Foreshore (Amendment) Bill 2013 will establish an acceptable regime for managing planning and development on the Foreshore and coastal areas.
According to Richard Boyd Barrett, Save Our Seafront and other environmental groups, the new bill fails to provide adequate mechanisms for public consultation, public appeals against planning decisions in the coastal area and more generally an appropriate regime to manage the particularly sensitive areas of coastal zones.