Noel Grealish (Galway West, Independent)
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294. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if local authorities can use compulsory purchase orders, CPOs, to purchase burial grounds given that it is the responsibility of local authorities to provide burial grounds; the criteria for which this process can be used; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5616/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Section 213 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended, provides a framework whereby a local authority may acquire land, permanently or temporarily, by agreement or compulsorily for the purposes of performing any of its functions (whether conferred by or under this Act, or any other enactment passed before or after the passing of this Act).

My colleague, the Minister for Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands, has responsibility for policy and legislation in relation to local authority burial grounds, while the operation of those burial grounds is for local authorities.

Functions conferred on me, as Minister, in relation to the compulsory acquisition of land by a local authority were transferred to, and vested in, An Bord Pleanála, under Section 214 of the Planning and Development Act 2000, as amended. Section 30 of the 2000 Act, as amended, provides: “The Minister shall not exercise any power or control in relation to any particular case with which a planning authority or the Board is or may be concerned”.