Where following an application made by any person before the date of the commencement of Article 8 for an oyster bed licence the Department of Agriculture had before that date caused a local public inquiry to be held under section 132 of the principal Act (as originally enacted), the Department may treat the application as an application for a shell-fish fishery licence and (if minded following consideration of the report of the person who conducted the inquiry to grant the licence) grant such a licence to the applicant without complying with section 132 (as substituted by Article 8).