The Minister for the Marine, Mr Fahey, is to appoint a top senior civil servant in his Department to handle coastal zone management.
The Department will be advertising the post of assistant secretary, a spokesman for the Minister told The Irish Times. The brief will involve working with a number of agencies and interest groups, including the Departments of Environment, Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, and local authorities bordering the coastline.
The new post is expected to take a delegated local management approach to the brief, in contrast to the European-wide management idea proposed by Green MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna. The success of the Bantry Bay Charter initiative, published in September last year, illustrates the success of the local approach, the Minister's spokesman said.
The Bantry Bay Charter was a unique project which negotiated agreements between local communities and regulatory bodies in a vibrant community of 12,000 people in west Cork. The partnership between Cork County Council, the University College Cork Coastal Resources Centre and the Nautical Enterprise Institute at Cork Institute of Technology involved working with over 60 organisations. It was funded under the EU Life Programme.
Referring to last week's series on the coastline in The Irish Times, the Minister's spokesman said coastal zone management was a key priority in the Department's strategy statement, published recently. The strategy document also provides for a new marine safety directorate.
The European Parliament's environment committee recently backed Ms McKenna's position on an EU-led approach. Her report recommends the setting up of an EU legal framework for integrated coastal zone management at all levels. Last week, the Labour Party environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, called on the Government to "come clean" on its policy on the coastline.
Mr Gilmore said the Government appeared to have no coherent policy and was content to see "piecemeal, unplanned" construction. The Labour Party had proposed limitations on development within one kilometre of the coast, but these proposals had been criticised by the Minister of State with responsibility for Rural Development, Mr Eamon ╙ Cu∅v.
"I am now calling on Minister ╙ Cu∅v to state clearly what is the Government policy regarding coastal development and coastal zone protection," he said.
