The Minister for the Marine is still committed to erecting the Loran-C radio-navigation mast at Loop Head in Co Clare. A year ago several Fianna Fail TDs urged Mr Fahey to abandon plans to put it there.
However, the interest shown by several south-west communities, including two Cork islands, could represent a significant breakthrough.
Planning permission has already expired in Co Clare and would have to be sought again. Under an international agreement ratified by the Dail in October 1992, Ireland is obliged to site the mast as part of the North-West European Loran-C system.
In 1992 when it was first mooted, Loran-C was introduced as a terrestrial alternative to the now redundant Decca navigation system, and a backup to the US-controlled satellite Global Positioning System (GPS), with 55 per cent of the cost to be borne by France and the Netherlands.
GPS was developed by the US Department of Defence mainly as a military system, but was subject to degradation until President Clinton announced otherwise earlier this year.
As a counterbalance, the lighthouse authorities of Britain and Ireland initiated, and still maintain, a maritime differential GPS service, which monitors the integrity of GPS and corrects both manmade and natural errors, with accuracy of 10 metres and better.
Loran-C is still regarded as an essential back-up, according to the Minister, and its merits were stressed by the Nautical Institute several years ago when its spokesman, Lieut Gary Delaney, emphasised the value of independence and its "repeatable" accuracy, in that any errors in latitude and longitude are always fixed.
The Commissioners of Irish Lights acted as agents for the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources when seeking permission to build the 720ft mast at Loop Head. The plans attracted local opposition, in the form of the Cross Loran-C Action Group.
In February 1994 Clare County Council refused planning permission for the station, but this was appealed to An Bord Pleanala, which overturned the council's decision in November of that year.
The Cross Loran-C action group backed two cases - one which challenged the planning appeals board's powers, and the second which challenged the powers of the Commissioners of Irish Lights to erect such a mast under the 1894 Merchant Shipping Act.
In July 1996 the Supreme Court ruled, by a three-to-two majority, that Irish Lights did not have adequate powers to run the mast and other radio-based navigation aids around the coastline. This prompted a change in legislation, but an amendment to the updated Act, introduced by the then marine minister, Dr Michael Woods, expressly excluded Loran-C from Commissioners of Irish Lights powers.
The project would not proceed unless approved and passed by both houses of the Oireachtas, he said. Under pressure from Fianna Fail TDs in Clare, the Minister also said he intended to conduct a fundamental review of the Loran-C system.
In April 1998 An Bord Pleanala's decision to approve permission for the mast was upheld by the Supreme Court. The court recognised that the board had acted within its remit by taking into consideration the benefits of providing facilities for safeguarding life at sea.
However, Dr Woods referred once again to his fundamental review, and said he intended to initiate a consultation process, involving two open days.
That public consultation never took place. In November last year, when the five-year planning permission expired, the Fianna Fail TD for Clare and former fisheries minister, Mr Brendan Daly, said the Department of the Marine should abandon plans for Loop Head altogether.
He was backed by two Fianna Fail TDs, the Minister for the Arts, Ms de Valera, and Mr Tony Killeen, while Senator Madeleine Taylor-Quinn (FG) also welcomed the expiry. She said the technology would be obsolete by the time the mast was up.