The Telecoms Regulator has said that if consumers want mobile communications, they will to live with the masts and dishes which provide those services. Speaking in Killarney at the annual conference of the Institution of Engineers, Etain Doyle called for more consistency at local authority level in the planning rules applied to network providers.
Ms Doyle said that sorting out the planning disarray at local authority level was critical to providing bigger and more sophisticated phone and communications networks.
She said there were wide variations, inconsistencies, and lack of transparency among County Councils when it came to network providers trying to get planning permission or wayleave consent for masts and cables.
She said that local authorities needed clear statements of planning policy on their websites when it came to telecommunications infrastructure above and below ground.
She also added that if consumers demand mobile services, as they clearly do, then masts, aerials, and dishes - and the holes and poles to build them – could not be avoided.
