A Clare Island fisherman in Ireland has launched High Court proceedings aimed at stopping the laying of fibre optic cable off the Co Mayo coast as part of a multi-million-euro international communications project.
James O’Toole is challenging the granting of a licence to the Irish leg of the project which will see a transatlantic subsea cable system connect Northern Europe and the US.
The Irish branch of the cable system is called America Europe Connect 2 (AEC) and is owned by a consortium of IT companies including internet giants Facebook and Google.
The consortium is a notice party to Mr O’Toole’s proceedings against the Minister of State at the Department of Planning and Local Government over the granting of a foreshore licence earlier this year.
A transatlantic fibre optic cable extending from the US to Denmark with spurs to Ireland and Norway is under construction and the planned route for the Irish spur includes a landfall at Old Head on the southern side of Clew Bay, some three kilometres from Louisburgh.
2020 THE IRISH TIMES