Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Since January 2020 there have been 23 section 254 licence applications for telecommunications masts in Dublin 15. These are not phone masts or telecommunication masts the size of lamp-posts; they are 15 m to 18 m or potentially up to 60 m in village and residential locations. I am not mad about The Spire, although I know other people are, but I certainly would not be okay with it turning up outside my kitchen window or towering over my local green. Community groups and Tidy Towns groups are doing a huge amount of work in the public realm with clean-ups. Are we really supposed to be okay with 18 m eyesores popping up without any public consultation whatsoever, and that they are treated as the equivalent of street furniture and vending machines? Something is wrong in our local planning process.

This is my recap of the legislation as I see it. I know I will probably get an answer based on it. Class 31 of Part 1 of Schedule 2 under the Planning and Development Regulations 2001 allows for specified telecommunications infrastructure without having to go through the planning process, but not if a telecoms mast is greater than 12 m. Then full planning permission is needed, section 34 applies and a five-week public consultation period. However, the process can be bypassed if an application is made under section 254 to put a mast on public land. The planning authority must be provided with details such as the position, the design and the capacity of the infrastructure, and it must abide by proper planning and sustainable development of the area and take account of the county development plan but even when it is refused by the planning authority it can be overturned by An Bord Pleanála on the basis that "some masts will remain quite noticeable despite best precautions." They can even go up to 60 m, but most are between 20 m and 40 m. One of the masts in Castleknock is only 15 m and that is supposed to be the reason it is acceptable.

I totally understand that we need broadband coverage and mobile phone coverage. It fits in with all our ambitions in terms of where the country is going but that does not mean public land should be the Wild West for telecommunications masts. This must be managed properly. The community must have a say. For example, there are 23 applications in the Dublin 15 area. In the same period, there were 52 applications in Fingal. How is that supposed to be resourced in an already overstretched planning department? How do the planners go out and make sure that every single application is appropriate? The applicant only has to pay €125 to go through this process, which does not wash its face.

The other side of the matter is how the planners check the validity of the coverage maps. It is all based on coverage maps they receive from Eir, Vodafone and Three. Potentially, there is also a mast for each operator, so we are potentially talking about three masts for three areas. The Aarhus Convention is supposed to give people a say in public planning and their environment. Is this good enough for local planning?