Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 11 May 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government
Messages to Dáil and Seanad
Mr Bobby Gleeson:
I will take that question. I can put on the record that GNI absolutely commits to working with residents in local areas where we put in any such installation as is considered here. As my colleague said, we also work closely with local authorities, local roads engineers and planning engineers within the council. To be fair, those personnel within the local authority are probably the best representatives of local residents and they challenge us when residents are not happy. We have had projects in the past where we have moved our proposed installations to satisfy residents. For the most part, the type of installations we are talking about are like-for-like replacements of existing aged assets which are being upgraded on safety grounds. It is only on very rare occasions these days that we have new customers on the gas network necessitating the installation of new assets. Generally, as they are for customers looking for the service, there is generally no objection to the installation. We absolutely pay attention to residents. We commit to paying attention to residents and we do that both publicly with residents and through the local authority.
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