Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein)
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Question 515: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the position regarding the stated intent of Donegal County Council to compulsorily purchase a part of Lough Foyle from his Department and to construct and operate a waste water treatment plant with outfall pipeline crossing the foreshore and entering into the sea floor of the lough a distance of 350 metres in view of the fact that the UK Crown Estate claims propriety ownership of the sea floor of Lough Foyle to the high water mark on the Donegal side of the lough; if he will confirm the internationally recognised legal ownership he is relying on to permit the sale of any such property to Donegal County Council or any other third party; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40872/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I understand that both the development consent and the compulsory purchase order for the development concerned were the subject of applications by Donegal County Council to An Bord Pleanála under the provisions of sections 226 and 227 of the Planning and Development Acts 2000 to 2011. In these circumstances the Council is not obliged to apply for a licence under Section 3 of the Foreshore Acts 1933 to 2011 and no such application has been received by my Department.

The Council's application for a compulsory purchase order was confirmed by the Board in August 2011. Following confirmation by the Board the transfer of ownership of the foreshore concerned becomes a matter to be transacted between Donegal County Council as the purchaser and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, in whom ownership of the foreshore is vested under the State Property Act 1954. As Minister, I am specifically precluded, under section 30 of the Planning and Development Acts from exercising any power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or An Bord Pleanála is concerned.