S.I. No. 517/2001 - European Communities (Internal Market in Natural Gas) (Compulsory Acquisition) Regulations, 2001

I, Frank Fahey, Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources, in exercise of the powers conferred on me by section 3 of the European Communities Act, 1972 (No. 27 of 1972) and for the purpose of giving further effect to Directive 98/30/EC of the European Parliament and of the Counsel of 22 June 1998, hereby make the following regulations:

1.     These Regulations may be cited as the European Communities (Internal Market in Natural Gas) (Compulsory Acquisition) Regulations, 2001.

2.      Section 32 of the Gas Act, 1976 (No. 30 of 1976), is amended by substituting the following for subsection (1A) (inserted by the Gas (Amendment) Act, 2000 (No. 26 of 2000)):

“(1A)  (a)    A person may apply to the appropriate Minister for an order under this section (which order is in this Act also referred to as an ‘acquisition order’) to acquire compulsorily any land or right over land which is required by such person in connection with the construction or operation of a pipeline for which such person applies or has applied for a consent under Section 40 of this Act (inserted by Section 19 of the Gas (Amendment) Act, 2000 ) and, subject to the following provisions of this section, the appropriate Minister may make an acquisition order in relation to the land or right over the land.

(b)   In this subsection-

‘appropriate Minister’ means -

(i)     in the case of any upstream pipeline network, the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources,

(ii)     in any other case, the Minister;

‘upstream pipeline network’ has the same meaning as it has in the Petroleum and Offshore Exploration (Transfer of Departmental Administration and Ministerial Functions) Order, 2001 ( S.I. No. 389 of 2001 ).”.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations and does not purport to be a legal interpretation)

These Regulations provide for an amendment to Section 32(1A) of the 1976 Act as inserted by Section 20(5) of the 2000 Act. The insertion of subparagraph 32(1A) enables a person to make simultaneous applications for consent to construct a gas pipeline and for compulsory acquisition orders (“CAO”) in relation thereto.