Roads `devastated' by `cowboy' subcontractors

Telecom sub-contractors were behaving like "cowboys in a wild west gold rush", digging up, "wrecking and devastating our roads", Mr Tommy Broughan (Lab, Dublin North East) claimed in the Dail.

The "cowboys" were even digging up other telecom providers' excavations, in the middle of the night in one case, to lay additional cables, he said. It was causing huge disruption to motorists, cyclists and pedestrians and they were behaving with "impunity".

The Minister of State for the Environment, Mr Bobby Molloy, promised that all existing road works would have to finish by December 8th at the latest and there would be no new ones from December 1st until January 15th next, except for emergencies, as part of Operation Freeflow 2000.

Mr Broughan said a new telecoms Act was needed to regulate providers. The whole network of roads in urban areas was being destroyed by telecom providers and sub-contractors.

Seventy-two operators were claiming the right to excavate the roads, and 11 major companies were laying cables on the north side of the Dublin. Dame Street in the city centre had been excavated almost 100 times in 20 months. East Wall Road was dug up 38 times and Beaumont Road "no less than 60 times", and it was very dangerous.

The local authorities did not receive a penny "yet massive long-term damage is being done to the roads", which were beginning to subside. The most recent piece of legislation in this area was the Telegraph Act of 1863. This should have been reformed when deregulation started in 1996 and 1997, and he called for the regulation of such operators.

Mr Molloy said new legislation is currently before the Seanad which is "designed to enhance local authority powers by obliging telecommunications operators to obtain the consent of the local authority before opening a road to lay underground telecommunications infrastructure".

The Minister is also considering the need to strengthen legislation to control road openings.

Efforts were being made to ad dress the issue but a balance had to be struck between the interests of local communities who want to restrict road openings and the need to improve the telecoms infrastructure in the State.