Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

These amendments create a new Chapter 1 to the new Part 4 within the Gas (Amendment) and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill. These provide for the transfer of Maritime Area Planning Act functions from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications. They preserve work completed to date on the south coast DMAP. The Attorney General determined that this transfer could not be completed through secondary legislation, as would normally be the case, because the transfer of the role of the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications as regards the approval of DMAPs while the Minister for the environment is in the process of preparing a DMAP for the south-east coast could create a legal risk to that DMAP.

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