Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 116 is also related. These amendments are linked to the strategic gas infrastructure consents, which we have already discussed. The amendments will transfer the power to decide on CPOs for major gas pipelines from the current consent body to the board. This is in line with similar changes to the 2000 Act on local authority CPOs in motorways. The Government's view is that the board is best placed to determine these matters when it is also charged with deciding whether a project is to obtain planning permission. The compulsory purchase functions are currently attached under the Gas Act to a number of people or bodies, in particular the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources for upstream and the Commission for Energy Regulation for any CPO necessary for downstream pipeline developments. These amendments provide that where the board is given the function on determining the planning consent for strategic gas infrastructure project and a related CPO is submitted, the board will take the decision on the compulsory acquisition.

The text of amendment No. 113 is based on the equivalent wording of section 215 of the 2000 Act, which deals with transferring CPO powers on major roads. It inserts a new section, section 215A, in the relevant part of the 2000 Act. All the existing powers that accrue to the Minister or the CER transfer as they are, including powers on substrata land, rights of way and deviation limits. The one exception relates to the fees payable to the Minister under Article 5 of the second Schedule to the Gas Act. As the board is given the power to recover its costs, this provision is not necessary and subsection (3) of the amendment states that it will not apply.

The other amendments are consequential to this amendment being included in the 2000 Act. They add section 215A to the relevant sections of part 14 of the 2000 Act, including those already being amended by the Bill and make other necessary changes to the wording.

The Labour Party's amendment to the Government amendment No. 115 would delete the paragraph allowing for oral hearings to be discretionary in the case of CPOs and in respect of strategic infrastructure projects. Oral hearings are not mandatory in planning cases. The change will extend any rule to all matters coming before the board. I have already stated my view that the board should not be required to hold oral hearings in all CPOs. Many of the approximately 60 oral hearings held by the board annually are into CPOs objected to by one landowner or by a small number of people. They could more sensibly and cost-effectively for all be settled through written agreements. There is no legal reason why public hearings must be held on a CPO. They are time-consuming and expensive and the only gainers are lawyers and experts recruited by people to argue their cases. The board will be——