Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise an issue of planning, which I presume is dealt with by the Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The issue is the use or abuse of section 254 licences to erect phone masts without having any process of public notice, consultation or whatever. Hundreds of masts have been put up in this way by Cignal, which recently changed its name to Cellnex. People are not opposed to masts and we need to have them as part of public infrastructure but they want to have a say in where they go, how they look and so on. A new issue has arisen recently in my estate whereby a mast is being put up under this section. There is an ongoing appeal to An Bord Pleanála yet the mast is still being put up. This was raised as a Topical Issue last night by a number of Deputies. The Minister of State was not clear as to whether the law states that the company has to stop while the appeal is ongoing, as is the case for everything else in planning, or if it can proceed as the company claims it can.

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