18. (1) The competent authority (M) shall, as soon as is practicable after initiating a review referred to in section 17(2) or (3), as appropriate, and for the purposes of ensuring compliance with Article 9 of the MSP Directive, prepare and publish on a website of the Government a statement (in this section referred to as the “public participation statement (M)”) of the processes settled by the competent authority (M) in relation to the involvement of interested persons in the preparation of a relevant document.

(2) The competent authority (M) shall take all reasonable steps to comply with the public participation statement (M).

(3) The competent authority (M) shall keep the public participation statement (M) under review and, if the competent authority (M) considers it necessary or expedient to revise the statement and does so, the competent authority shall publish on a website of the Government the statement as so revised.

(4) The Minister may by regulations specify requirements with which a public participation statement (M) shall comply, including requirements relating to any of the following:

(a) appropriate time periods for public consultation;

(b) arrangements for the publication of notices relating to relevant documents;

(c) the contents of notices, including the following:

(i) public consultation timeframes, including periods during which submissions may be made;

(ii) information on how submissions received will be acknowledged, considered and published;

(iii) information on the proposed methods of public participation;

(d) specific arrangements (including, if the Minister considers it appropriate to do so in the interests of clarity, separate sets of regulations made under this section) in relation to MSPs that fall within section 16(3)(a), (b) or (c);

(e) arrangements relating to the establishment of methods of public participation.

(5) Where the Minister makes regulations under subsection (4), he or she shall, in addition to having regard to the other provisions of this Act, also have regard to the following principles and policies:

(a) compliance with the Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters done at Aarhus, Denmark on 25 June 1993;

(b) compliance with Directive 2003/35/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 26 May 2003⁹ providing for public participation in respect of the drawing up of certain plans and programmes relating to the environment and amending with regard to public participation and access to justice Council Directives 85/337/EEC and 96/61/EC - statement by the Commission;

(c) compliance with Article 9 of the MSP Directive;

(d) the opportunity to incorporate national and international good practices relating to public participation;

(e) public participation in the process is inclusive;

(f) the administrative burden on the competent authority (M) and participants is considered, making use, where possible, of existing public participation processes and methods;

(g) that public participation is initiated at an early stage in and continued throughout the development of MSPs;

(h) that appropriate use is made of a wide range of media to raise awareness to maritime spatial planning and public participation opportunities;

(i) that appropriate use is made of information technology;

(j) particular requirements relating to MSPs that fall within section 16(3)(a), (b) or (c).

(6) For the purposes of assisting any committee of the Oireachtas to engage in the public participation the subject of this section, the Minister shall cause a copy of the public participation statement (M) (including any such statement as revised under subsection (3)) to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.

(7) In this section, “relevant document” means—

(a) a draft of a MSP that falls within section 16(3)(a), (b) or (c),

(b) a document specified in the public participation statement (M) as a document to which this paragraph applies, or

(c) a document specified in regulations made under subsection (4) as a document to which this paragraph applies.