The way forward is to call on minister to amend Act

THE current legal position for the erection of a mast that is the subject of an appeal is that the appeal “does not give the automatic suspensive effect of the granting of the [mast] licence”,

This is according to Mary Maguire, senior executive officer at South Dublin County Council, while speaking at a meeting of the Tallaght Area Committee on Monday.

Two councillors, namely Cllr Mick Duff (Ind) and Cllr Charlie O’Connor (FF), tabled motions at the meeting centred on the ongoing issue with mast infrastructure placement in Tallaght.

As previously reported in The Echo, two mast developments in Kingswood have been met with consternation in the community.

A proposed mast at the Kingswood Luas stop was recently granted a licence, but that decision has since been appealed to An Bord Pleanála by local resident Bridget Smith.

A decision on the appeal has yet to be decided, but in recent weeks works have been carried out by contractors at the Luas stop site.

A second mast, which was erected at Sylvan Drive in November 2020, will be the subject of a forthcoming judicial review that was launched by locals after an appeal to An Bord Pleanála was unsuccessful.

The ambiguity around the works for the mast at the Luas stop have been a cause for concern in the community, for both locals and councillors.

However, the legislation around the granting of mast licences is distinct from the legislation around planning appeals – where work cannot commence on a project that is the subject of an appeal.

Cllr Duff tabled a motion at the meeting calling for a letter to be issued to Minister for Housing, Darragh O’Brien, to amend the legislation so mast works can’t be carried out while waiting for the outcome of an appeal.

“We’re in strange and peculiar waters here,” he told the area committee, “to the point that, while I understand the residents and the residents’ group being annoyed about it, despite everything else, this council has gone to a lot of trouble.

“A lot of work has gone on behind the scenes regarding what is legal and what is illegal when it comes to these things.

“Opinions are one thing, but facts and the law are another. We cannot, as a council here, change or amend the Planning Act.

“It’s not within the gift of councillors, it never was within the gift of councillors, and never will be in the gift of councillors.”

He added: “The right way forward, for us, is to call on the minister to amend the Act, and therefore it would be quite clear that no work can take place if an appeal is put in place.”

The issue has also been raised at Oireachtas level by local TDs Paul Murphy (PBP), Colm Brophy (FG) and John Lahart (FF), and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar was also made aware of the issue.

Mary Maguire from SDCC told the committee: “From a public perspective, and from the executive’s perspective, there is ambiguity.

“And where there’s ambiguity, is there a right and is there a wrong? So, we are where we are, unfortunately.”

Cllr Duff’s motion was agreed by the committee and a letter will be issued to the Minister for Housing.

This motion was followed by a second one, by Cllr O’Connor, requesting a detailed report on the council’s response to community concern about the issue.

In response, Ms Maguire stated: “The legal view we have received is that, at the moment, based on the legalisation as it is, the legal position is that the making of an appeal to An Bord Pleanála does not give the automatic suspensive effect of the granting of the licence.

“That’s not palatable to a lot of people, but this is where we are at, so I think this will come to a head, one way or the other, very shortly.”

Cllr O’Connor added that the issue is “a problem that’s not going away” and stated that “we’ll be back again next month if this isn’t solved”.