Steven Matthews (Wicklow, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I apologise to Senator Dolan and welcome her to this afternoon's meeting in substitution for Senator Seery Kearney.

The next slot is the Green Party's so I will take that. I would like a few clarifications. The application system and the assessment of something to be placed under a section 254 licence remains the same. I understand that if the same 100 m criteria were applied to 140,000 km of cable, there would be a substantial cost. The Minister of State said it would be something like €30 million, which is not viable, so I fully understand and support the fee change. The licence would be applied for a network of cable. Would there still be the same level of assessment if the network consisted of ten, 15 or 20 poles of a spur to serve a country road? Is the same level of assessment required by local authority planners on the issuing of the licence?