Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

The amendment seeks to require the Railway Procurement Agency or CIE to engage in bona fide reasonable efforts to acquire land by agreement before seeking a compulsory order. I do not propose to accept the amendment because, even if it was possible to determine with precision what is meant in practice by "bona fide reasonable efforts", we are not placing this requirement on any other body involved in the compulsory acquisition of land and it would be inappropriate to do so in the case of railway authorities trying to buy land to extend our public transport network. It would throw a legal landmine into the process and could work against the standardisation of procedures we are trying achieve in the Bill, as well as raising the danger of vexatious challenges. A different and more onerous requirement in terms of compulsory purchase orders would apply in the area of public transport. It would not, therefore, be wise to accept the amendment.