Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senator Currie for raising this important issue on the process under section 254 of the Planning and Development Act for telecommunications infrastructure. Senator Currie was a leading proponent of remote working and the need for broadband in that regard.Long before the onset of Covid and long before the Senator was elected to this House, she led the charge for remote working and highlighted the benefits that could be brought to society at large by introducing remote working in a broad way. Of course Covid expedited that and we now have a very different cultural situation. I am aware that Senator Currie, the other Senators here today and I, as a constituency Deputy, have been inundated with requests for better broadband at particular pinch points. There is simply no question but that the delivery of broadband coverage is a strategic imperative for communities and the State.

That said, the Senator is right that we need an appropriate planning process where broadband is concerned. I have some of these masts and some broadband challenges in my own constituency so I understand the issue very well. On behalf of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage I want to say that the use of the section 254 licensing process is restricted solely to public roads. As I think the Senator is aware, section 254 of the Act provides for a licensing system for appliances and structures placed on, above, under or along a public road, including footpaths. The Act provides that a "public road" has the same meaning as the Roads Act 1993, as amended, which defines it as "a road over which a public right of way exists and the responsibility for the maintenance of which lies on a road authority", which is a local authority.

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. The Senator is quite right to highlight the relative resourcing of local authorities. I believe that the provision of broadband is an absolute priority from the State's perspective and these things must be attended to as quickly as possible.

A licence may be granted by the planning authority for such a period and upon such conditions, including conditions in relation to location, design, space taken up and the need to protect protected structures. Again, I also have had situations where somebody looks out their kitchen window and sees a large mast, much to their surprise. A mast can be erected very quickly so consultation is the least that communities might expect.

I recognise that there are difficult competing challenges, which are: to deliver broadband quickly; to deliver the masts quickly; to engage in public consultation; and to have a planning process that enables the quick delivery of this strategic imperative. It is very difficult to manage all of those things both from the perspectives of local authorities and of local representatives.

Section 254(5A) of the Act outlines the licensing process in respect of an application for a licence to erect, construct or place the electronic communication infrastructure and any associated physical infrastructure. If a planning authority fails to make a decision within a period of four months commencing on the date of receipt of an application, a decision of the authority is deemed to have been made on the day following the expiration of that period of four months, which as the Senator said speaks even more to the need to engage in this and engage in it quickly in order that local authorities have the best information, and decision-making, available to them.

Where a planning authority requests additional information from the applicant and has not made a decision within a period of four months of receiving the applicant's response to the request, a deemed decision to grant a licence shall be deemed to have been made. So the Senator can see from what I have said that the impetus is in favour of the granting of a licence. However, because of the need for broadband consultation, it is very difficult to argue that that should be slower, given the imperatives that we have. I think it is also possible to judicially review such things, although I am well aware that this is not an easy thing to do.

Where an appeal has been lodged with An Bord Pleanála to judicially review same, the reality is that the communities want to be consulted on changes to their streetscape. It is also a reality that communities want broadband. On a different day the Senator might come in here looking for an increased roll-out of broadband and these are the competing challenges of running or managing a State.