Vol. 484 No. 4
17 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the regulations, if any, that exists within his Department to limit or to prevent the proliferation of communication masts in national parks and forests. [22344/97]
My Department is not responsible for regulations of this type. The siting of telecommunications masts is subject to the planning process for which my colleague, the Minister for the Environment and Local Government, has overall responsibility.
I thought there might be special regulations regarding parks. A person could not build a bungalow, for example, in a national park so why is it possible to erect a mobile telephone mast there? There have been many protests about the siting of such masts in various localities and it would be inappropriate to locate them in national parks. Why is there a distinction between mobile telephone masts and ordinary planning issues?
Every planning issue is dealt with through the planning process, which is under the aegis of the Department of the Environment and Local Government. My Department has no regulatory authority in this regard. The Department of the Environment and Local Government issued planning guidelines some years ago to assist planning authorities. The guidelines refer to forestry plantations as suitable locations for the siting of telecommunications masts.
