Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I fully support the amendment. Senator Currie has been very consistent on this issue for a long time in the Seanad. It makes absolute sense. There is a huge amount of unregulated telecommunications infrastructure around the country. In my local authority area of Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown, there has been a constant call for strategic grid mapping of this infrastructure. We see it on roofs. Litigation has been taken against parish churches to have the stuff taken off, internally and externally, including on many protected structures. We see it on protected structures that are State-owned buildings. There is no comprehensive national mapping exercise, or certainty there was not when I was on the council. There are also health issues.

We have to have critical infrastructure and we rely on the digital economy and network. There are places along the coast where there are breaks in the system, but there has to be a strategic overview of it. There are guidelines on placing telecommunications around schools and near people below the age of 14 and 15. It is about the hardening of the human skull. There have been many documentaries and much research on this. This is not mad paranoia stuff. There are health concerns and the jury is still out on it. The cumulative effect of this unregulated and clustered movement of systems needs to be mapped. That is another day's work and something we need to look at. There are serious health issues.

The Green Party was long an advocate of a grid system so that we fully understand where it is. There is the physical look of it and there are the planning and health issues. Certainly we do not want to see such infrastructure tagged onto protected structures. Some of them are quite ghastly looking things.

We know from research on planning enforcement that local authorities do not fully know what is going on. There are changes. I spoke to somebody recently who said she woke up at 4 a.m. to a big hoist and crane going up above a shop opposite her house. When she complained to the planning authority, it knew nothing about it. It is being done at certain times. People are told it is an upgrade but suddenly it is twice the height or it is a bigger box.

What I also like about the amendment is the fact there will be a process and it will be documented. It reads "The planning authority shall acknowledge any submissions or observations as soon as may be after receipt [of same]". That is important. The cumulative effect is also important. I recognise, as Senator Currie did, the digital economy. There is a realisation we have to use telecommunications but it has to be done in a sensitive way. I commend the Senator on this important amendment.