John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will not repeat points already made. Unfortunately, legislation going through the House is not going to have any impact on what has happened in Kingswood or other areas. I thank the Minister of State for his replies to the matters submitted by my two colleagues and me. There are four points I want to make. Can the Minister of State clarify whether anybody has an appeal before An Bord Pleanála? I presume work must be stopped if there is an appeal against the planning permission. Why is the work ongoing?

According to the Minister of State's response, and as alluded to by Deputy Brophy, a person applying for a licence under section 254 must provide the planning authority with such plans and other information concerning the position, design and capacity of the appliance, apparatus or structure as the authority may require. In the case in question, South Dublin County Council denied any knowledge of the antenna going up. This clearly implies it had to have knowledge in advance – not just knowledge in the sense of its having been told it was going to happen but detailed designs and drawings concerning exactly what was going up and its purpose.

Exactly why are these antennae so important? What are they serving? I take the point on issues currently before the board; however, if I applied for planning permission for a house and someone appealed my grant of permission, I simply could not proceed with construction and would have to wait until the board adjudicated. Despite this, the developers on the sites in question continue as if no law applies to them. I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his latitude.

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