Malcolm Noonan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

Amendments Nos. 112 and 113 seek to amend section 12(8)(b), which provides that, where a planning authority fails to make a decision on an application for a licence in respect of electronic communications infrastructure, the licence shall be deemed granted if eight weeks has passed since the application was received or four weeks have passed since an applicant’s response to an additional information request, whichever is later. The proposed amendments would change these periods to 12 weeks from receipt of an application and six weeks from receipt of a response to an additional information request respectively. These provisions are included to give effect to EU Directive 2014/61/EU on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communication networks. Article 7 of the directive requires, among other things, that applications for statutory permits required prior to undertaking works to install high-speed broadband electronic communications network infrastructure be decided upon within four months of the submission of a complete application. Although the proposed amendments would be within the timeframe required by the directive, it is not in keeping with the decision timeframe for licences set out in section 12 and could cause confusion. As such, I cannot accept amendments Nos. 112 and 113. Will I also speak to amendment No. 114?