Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Cathaoirleach Gníomhach is right. If we think back ten or 15 years, there was contentious public debate and planning applications were being reviewed and restricted. It was a subject of real controversy. That has reduced somewhat. Even four or five years ago with the start of this term in office and the establishment of this Department, there was real concern that the roll-out of the 5G network would be deeply contested but that has not, by and large, been the case. I come back to the fundamental point that as the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach said, we want to minimise the number of networks, antennae and transmission equipment by trying to encourage a collaborative approach. That will keep the public on our side because there will not be so many applications and there will not be a sense of an overbearing presence of telecommunications network infrastructure