Law planned to regulate road works

Local authorities will have the right to refuse telecoms companies permission to dig up roads for maintenance work under new legislation to be published in coming months.

The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has announced that the Communications (Regulations) Bill being drafted by the Department of Public Enterprise will require all telecoms companies to obtain written consent from local authorities to close roads or disrupt traffic.

The level of disruption from maintenance work was unacceptable, he said, and "our current legislation is clearly deficient in not allowing Dublin Corporation to regulate this activity properly".

Companies now must only give local authorities the details of maintenance work they propose to carry out, a hangover from the days of Telecom Eireann's monopoly in telecommunications. With liberalisation, private telecoms were granted the same rights as the State company, now Eircom.

The new Bill is to be published by June and may become law before the end of the year. It is expected to enable local authorities to charge companies for costs imposed on road-users. A disputes mechanism has yet to be finalised.

The move follows criticism last year from the Dublin city manager, Mr John Fitzgerald, of the existing "free-for-all". He said the Government was putting commercial interests before the public interest, noting that 11 companies were digging up city streets at the same time.

Only when companies were confronted with the full cost of the activities they undertook would they change, he said.

In a related development, the Departments of Public Enterprise and Environment and Local Government are finalising plans for a national ducting network alongside all new roads and motorways.

A standard duct specification, allowing all necessary cables to be laid, should be agreed before March.