Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I commend Senator Currie on the amendment. It is often the case that these decisions are made by someone in an office far removed from the situation. We see these telecommunication structures going up and, regardless of whether they are good, bad, indifferent or needed, people presume the worst about them because of the lack of communication with local communities. I have attended many public meetings about them. Sometimes, the information there is not correct. It is when we do not communicate with communities that people’s imaginations get carried away. We need to take this issue seriously. It is easy for someone who lives nowhere near the area to put such structures in the middle of a town or village, but we have to listen to the concerns of people on the ground as well. A lack of communication is one of the main problems with such developments. It should not be acceptable that a planning authority does not have to communicate with the community whatsoever before installing these giant antennae. I am sure they are needed and we all want good mobile phone access and so on, but we must put them in the best places instead of trying to split up communities, which is the last thing we need. We want to keep communities and that lovely social thread unsplit by bad decisions that are made by someone in an office far away. A lack of communication always leads to fear and, sometimes, fearmongering. We have to take this issue seriously. The people on the ground want and deserve to be informed.