247.—In addition to amendments to the Act of 2000 provided for in Schedule 4 (which relate to amendments that are minor and consequential to this Act), the Act of 2000 is further amended—

(a) by the deletion in paragraph (a) of section 12(1) of “any town commissioners and city and county development boards within the area,”,

(b) in section 106(3)—

(i) by the substitution in paragraph (a) of “6 additional members” for “5 additional members”, and

(ii) by the substitution in paragraph (b) of “more than 6 but not more than 12 additional members” for “more than 5 but not more than 10 additional members”,

(c) in section 134, by the insertion of the following after subsection (4):

“(5) (a) Subject to section 218, where the Board considers it necessary or expedient for the purposes of making a determination in respect of any of its functions under this Act or any other enactment, it may, in its absolute discretion, hold an oral hearing and shall, in addition to any other requirements under this Act or other enactment, as appropriate, consider the report and any recommendations of the person holding the oral hearing before making such determination.

(b) Section 135 shall apply to any oral hearing held in accordance with paragraph (a) and that section shall be construed accordingly.”,

(d) by the substitution in section 141 of “Organisation of Working Time Act, 1997” for “Holidays (Employees) Act, 1973” in each place where it occurs,

(e) in section 156(1)—

(i) by the substitution of “section” for “sections”, and

(ii) by the substitution of “239 or 247” for “239 and 247”,

(f) by the substitution in section 162(3) of “application for permission for retention of unauthorised development” for “application for retention of permission”,

(g) by the substitution in section 175(10)(e) of “the Environmental Protection Agency Act, 1992” for “this Act”,

(h) by the deletion of paragraph (c) of section 179(1),

(i) by the insertion in section 211(4) after “properly applied” of “, or for such purposes as may be approved by the Minister whether generally or in relation to specified cases or circumstances”,

(j) in section 214(2)(f)—

(i) by the substitution in subparagraph (i) of “and 80” for “,80 and 85”, and

(ii) by the deletion of subparagraph (ii),

(k) in section 221, by the insertion of the following after subsection (8):

“(9) The Minister may by regulations provide for such additional, incidental, consequential or supplemental matters as regards procedure in respect of the functions transferred to the Board under section 214 or 215 as appear to the Minister to be necessary or expedient.”,

(l) by the substitution of the following for section 249(2)—

“(2) Where any provision of this Act, or of any regulations made thereunder, requires notice to be given to any person who has made representations, submissions or observations to a planning authority or the Board, the planning authority or the Board may dispense with that requirement where—

(a) a large number of representations, submissions or observations are made as part of an organised campaign, or

(b) it is not possible to readily ascertain the full name and address of those persons who made the representations, submissions or observations,

provided that the authority or the Board uses some other means of giving notice to the public that the authority or the Board is satisfied can adequately draw the attention of the public to that notice including, in the case of an organised campaign referred to in paragraph (a), giving notice to any person who, in the opinion of the planning authority or the Board, organised the campaign.”,

and

(m) by the insertion of the following paragraph after paragraph 20 of the Fourth Schedule:

“20A. The proposed development would not be consistent with a planning scheme in force in respect of a strategic development zone.”.