Ms Marie Baker:

This is boring. I never took account of this, but we had a number of requests for clarification on the compulsory purchase legislation. This legislation is almost 200 years old. The primary legislation dates from 1845. Compulsory purchase of land arises in the context of roads, ESB, railways and service providers of all sorts. A number of local authorities wrote to us. The legislation is exceedingly difficult. It uses very outmoded language.

I am not even going to outline the words in it. It identifies different legislation and different start dates for valuation. Different legislation identifies different measures of compensation and there were requests from a number of bodies that this be looked at. If nothing else, it would be worthwhile to prepare a list of the statutes to consider whether one set of rules should apply and whether the language of injurious affection and the other heads of damage deserve to be brought into the 21st century. This is dull but important.