Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 59:

In page 51, line 18, to delete “and”.

These amendments make some further changes in relation to the BusConnects sections of the Bill. Section 46 amends section 44(6)(iii) of the Dublin Transport Authority Act 2008 to provide that the NTA cannot be interpreted as stepping into the role of a local authority under section 178 of the Planning and Development Act 2000. The section also provides for the insertion of a new subsection 6A into section 44 of the 2008 Act, which relates to the requirement to acquire lands by agreement or by means of a compulsory purchase order for the purpose of mitigating the impact of any public transport infrastructure on the environment generally, any particular site, building or structure, the availability of parking, or trees and landscaping. Following advice from the Attorney General, it is proposed to amend section 46 of the Bill in order to bring more clarity to the new section 44(6A) of the DTA Act 2008. I propose to insert the words “Without prejudice to the generality of subsection 6(ii)” at the start of the new section 44(6A).

This amendment is intended to make clear that this power is without prejudice to existing powers in the Act, given that the NTA already has general powers to acquire land under section 44(6)(ii) of the DTA Act. The current wording of section 46 of the Bill provides that a power exists to relocate or replace the items listed in the section, if necessary with a similar but not identical equivalent, if they need to be demolished or removed in order to provide the necessary public transport infrastructure. The Attorney General has advised that this provision should be reworded by way of an amendment which provides for a specific reference to a power to compulsorily acquire land for the purpose of any mitigation whatsoever, while removing specific references to relocating or replacing existing buildings.

The amendment will still permit compulsory purchase for the purpose of relocating or replacing buildings, but it will not highlight that purpose in order to avoid unreasonable demands being placed on the NTA, with the consequential risk of judicial review if those unreasonable demands are refused. I might go on to the other amendments.