Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of telephone masts that are being erected throughout this country and particularly in my constituency. There have been one, if not two, egregious incidents in Kingswood in Tallaght. Masts are put up under section 254 of the Planning and Development (Amendment) Act 2021. I call that section the "we do not give a damn what people think section". It enables a local authority to bypass most of the effective part of the planning system. What happens is that local residents wake up one morning to see a contractor carrying out work on a telephone mast and that is the first they have heard of it. The local authority in my area, South Dublin County Council, agreed under pressure from me a couple of months back to include it in the list for planning in the weekly planning lists, for which there is a provision. However, there is no site notice or process as there is with a normal planning application. People have the ability to object to An Bord Pleanála. At that stage, as we have seen in particular in the past few days in Kingswood, the mast can be half-built by contractors who do not seem to give a damn. This is totally unacceptable and absolutely needs to be changed. We have an opportunity to change it. A new planning Bill is coming in, section 10 of which is intended to replace section 254 of the 2021 Act. It must, at an absolute minimum, install a full planning process for these masts. There is no reason telephone masts should be exempted from the regular planning process. These companies have a lot of money. They are well capable of providing masts. I do not want to stop the provision of masts. What I want is a fair process that gives a right to local communities and residents to say they are in favour of or against a mast in their location. If that were to be the case, it would be a fair process. This sneaky, backdoor section 254 must be stopped. There should be a review of all currently pending masts. They can wait until the new legislation comes in and go through a section 10 process under that new legislation.

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