Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AN OIREACHTAS COMMITTEE will today discuss draft laws that could see electricity pylons being used to provide broadband access in rural areas.
The Communications Sub-Committee will also debate a number of amendments to the bill which was announced by Minister Pat Rabbittee last month and could make it possible for ESB to enter the broadband market.
As part of the ESB (Electronic Communications Networks) Bill 2013, the ESB will be allowed to give third-party companies access to all “electricity infrastructure” for the provision of communication services.
This is planned to include any distribution systems including electricity power lines.
Specifically, the definition of electric lines is expected to contain the provision for the use of “any structure, pole or other thing in, on, by or from which any such line may be supported, carried or suspended”.
In areas where ESB infrastructure crosses over private land, the ESB has wayleave rights to access the private lands subject to compensation. It is envisaged as part of the new bill that the third-party companies given access to the infrastructure will have also have similar access to the private land.
A number of amendments to the bill submitted by Fianna Fáil’s Michael Moynihan and Sinn Féin’s Michael Colreavy will be discussed by the nine person committee.
Among the amendments tabled is one from Moynihan who wants it it be be written into the legislation that any work carried on the land of property owners “shall not be carried out in such a manner that it would dramatically impact on the property rights of the owner”.
“Every effort shall be made to ensure the development shall be carried out in such manner that shall have the least detrimental impact on the property concerned,” the amendment proposes.
Colreavy wants it it be be written into the legislation that any contract the ESB makes with a third-party company must ensure a certain percentage of work is carried out by small businesses.
The ESB says it has “no comment to make on the legislation currently before the Dáil, this is a matter for Government”, the company said in a statement.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Underground broadband will work out cheaper !!!!
Take your pylons & stick them up your warren Rabitte,
The people of Ireland aren’t going to allow you & your cronies to get away with ruining our countryside.
Don’t ruin the bits the bungalow blitzers already ruined!
Did rabbitte not say 3 years ago the high speed broadband would be in all of Ireland by 2013? So now it can only be got once the dangerous pylons come in?
I think they decided to part fund mobile-broadband roll out.
Less good but a lot cheaper than DSL.
Though the folks in rural aireland don’t like cellular masts either, what with them giving everyone immediate cancer.
These bungalows are people’s homes. Do you expect people in rural Ireland to all live in thatch cottages & farm sheds? The vast majority of people living in rural Ireland are the sons & daughters of locals so why shouldn’t they live there?
Are you really comparing 1 or 2 floor houses to huge ugly unnecessary pylons higher than Liberty Hall?
No…. It would be nice for rural folk to gather together in planned settlements we call “villages”.
1-off ‘McMansions’ are a blight on the landscape.
Good come back DDI!
Apt from a party of thug Ben Gilroy & spaceman Japan!
You nutbags will be gone in a year.
*Jaan
effing auto correct.
Well Charlie Flanagan TD does not want pylons near stud farms as apparently horses are very sensitive to them. It’s good to know where you stand on this man’s list of priorities. Just below a horse.
Clearly, despite what we’re told, Rabbites know little about underground communications. Someone is trying to steal a march on land rights, methinks.
Hare hare!
Do Pylons effect wildlife…???.
It just seem that Pat Rabbittes brain is fried and once the word Pylon is mentioned he talks through his ho&e….
If the poles are already there why use them. Rural broadband is badly needed.
That said I always thought HV electricity and tel comms didn’t like close proximity.
It would probably be fibre they’d be using, that would not be effected by the magnetic fields from the HV cables.
Hmm the back door politics is alive and well.
What the hell would politicians know about this, in order to make a correct decision on it?? Its in the wrong hands.
Rabbit, you’ve come along way since the days of sein Fein the workers party…
Do people want the true terrifying truth about the dangers of pylons or do they want FREE BROADBAND????
Free broadband wahoooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!
Get a grip folks. Rural areas suffer from appallingly poor access to broadband which is very damaging for businesses and consumers in the digital age. This is just one aspect of the increasing disadvantage which many rural areas suffer under and I speak as a Dubliner. The ESB has massive surplus fibre capacity in many rural areas and is now proposing to make that capacity available to broadband suppliers on a wholesale basis. In other words existing suppliers of broadband in rural areas will now have other options available to them. This is very good news especially for rural towns who will get genuine broadband speed from fibre and villages and is a prime example of a State body maximising existing investment for the public good. Astonishing that not one comment to-date has highlighted the public benefits and has focussed exclusively on negative carping. Infrastructure, whether provided by public or private means inevitably impinges on private property rights. The public and the private good must be reconciled. Almost invariably in Ireland this has meant that the private good often overrode the public interest. If the attitudes expressed here had been allowed to prevail when Ireland was first electrified we would never had had rural electrification.
The ESB went into telecommunications and broadband (oceanfree.net) before, then sold out to to BT who sold out to Vodafone.
Who is to say the same will not happen again?
Exactly. ESB needed fiber for it’s own operations but put in lots of additional capacity because the marginal cost was so low. They are now finally allowed to earn some kind of return on it.
Agreed. ESB intend to enter the wholesale market. As I understand it they will not be in the business of direct customer provision themselves. Who cares as long as the public and businesses have broadband access? Yes they did install a great deal of additional capacity because they already had the track laid as it were. Well done ESB. A semi-state business that can actually plan ahead. Either way it’s a public benefit so I wish people would stop obsessing about their private property rights which are in any event constitutionally protected. We need to focus on the public good. If every land owner and property owner had to be negotiated with individually in cities, towns, villages and rural areas we would get nothing done. I do not deny that people’s rights must be protected but there is ample case law and precedent in this area which limits the power of public and private bodies in this area. Good to see the ESB provide this facility to the many rural areas which are dying on their feet.
This is part of a misinformation campaign by Eirgrid. The pylons are for wind full stop. Its in their SEA , it specifically states they need pylons for wind.
Who will vet these people who will be prowling around people homes and property? Will preference be given to bogus charity collectors who have experience in getting people to open the door ?
have your say