Kilkenny TD criticises Bord Pleanala, highlights communications mast issues

Local TD John McGuinness has criticised An Bord Pleanala and said it would require 'considerable work' to mend its name, highlighting in particular the issue of planning decisions regarding communications masts.

Deputy McGuinness was speaking in a Dáil discussion about An Bord Pleanála, local authorities and the delivery of houses. He said many of the problems Ireland has stem from local authorities or the bureaucracy of the State being inefficient and not fit for purpose. 

"During my time in local government and the Dáil, I always told anyone who came to inquire about planning that An Bord Pleanála was beyond reproach, that it had a job to do, was independent and so on. Boy was I naive about that," he said.

"The recent controversy has exposed so much in An Bord Pleanála that it will require considerable work to mend its name and put it back on track. I refer to many of the decisions that were made around telephone masts and masts for mobile phone systems - the usage of them, access to sites, the value of those sites after they are developed and so on. In an awful lot of those cases, the initial planning is now suspect.

"I know that from my involvement in the local community group in Kells in County Kilkenny where the erection of a mast has stopped all because the planning was an issue. It has ignored the recommendations of the Minister in terms of where masts should be and just ploughs on as if it has no policy and no direction but can do what it likes."