New appeals against masts flow from An Bord Pleanála report

All three cases were put back until next week pending further instructions being received by the board’s solicitors as to whether it will oppose the actions.

The High Court has heard two new appeals against An Bord Pleanála decisions to approve the construction of telecoms masts, in light of the board’s acknowledgement that such decisions are “irregular”.

Three such mast cases were heard on Monday as part of the court’s strategic infrastructure list before Justice Richard Humphreys.

One case, taken by Oranmore resident Pierce Butler against the board, Vodafone, and Eircom, called for the decision taken by former board members Paul Hyde and Michelle Fagan in August 2021 to allow the construction of a mast in the Galway town to be quashed as the decision was allegedly “affected by bias” and Mr Hyde had allegedly ceased to be a board member due to his having entered into an arrangement with creditors.

A second was taken by Wicklow couple Timothy and Annabel Frawley and called for a decision — again taken by Mr Hyde and Ms Fagan in February 2022 — to allow construction of a mast by their Glenealy home to be quashed for the same reasons as in Mr Butler’s case.

Both plaintiffs were represented by senior counsel James Devlin, instructed by Eoin Brady for FP Logue solicitors.

The case of Dublin councillor Sophie Nicoullaud, first reported by the Irish Examiner, who sued the board over the “irrational” decision to approve the construction of an 18m telecoms mast on a green space in the south of the city, was also mentioned.

All three cases were put back until next week pending further instructions being received by the board’s solicitors as to whether it will oppose the actions.

All three cases are outside the window for seeking a judicial review of a board decision. However, they have argued that the reason for that delay — that the allegedly suspect nature of the decisions was not known at the time the orders were made — were “outside the control” of the plaintiffs.

A fourth mast case, taken by Kilkenny man Peter Thomson last December, was recently granted leave for a judicial review — despite being outside the window to file such an action — for the same reason.

In both Mr Butler’s and the Frawleys’ statement of grounds, they have requested that the manner by which Mr Hyde was allocated their respective mast applications be revealed by the board. 

They further asked that the circumstances which saw both Mr Hyde and Ms Fagan allocated an allegedly disproportionate number of mast cases between January 2021 and July 2022, be revealed along with “the circumstances leading to the resignation of Paul Hyde”.

Both new cases cited an internal report commissioned by An Bord Pleanála into its processes, which was
delivered last year but has never been officially published, as evidence of the alleged bias at play.

That report noted that decisions over masts made by Ms Fagan with former deputy chairman Paul Hyde represented “a very significant statistical irregularity”.