Phone masts signal Big Brother future
By Robert Allen
A collaboration between the telecommunications company ESAT and
the Garda is bringing George Orwell's high-tech, totalitarian
future closer to home.
ESAT are allowed to erect mobile phone masts in any garda station
they want. In return, ESAT will upgrade Garda communications.
Garda sources say that the upgrade coincides with the
introduction of new high-tech computers, surveillance and control
gadgets for the Gardai. When the new high-tech system is in place
(they're aiming for the year 2000), the Garda will have detailed
instant information on everybody.
What began as a protest movement against the erection of masts,
because communities are concerned about their health, is offering
as well a sinister glimpse of the near future.
Mobile phone masts emit radiation which has proven damaging
health effects. The mobile phone companies deny this. The Irish
and British governments refuse to acknowledge the evidence. This
lack of concern from the authorities has galvanised hundreds of
communities into opposition to the masts.
The communities have not been idle. Extensive research has now
allowed the groups to argue from a strong position that their
health is being impaired. Although documentary evidence of the
health effects of long exposure to microwave radiation is
difficult to research, it is now becoming available to more and
more groups around the country.
Their concern is the exposure limit allowed by the state. This is
450uW/cm2, which doesn't mean much until you realise that illness
can occur at levels above 0.01uW/cm2. This is the limit, health
experts agree, which should be set if cancer, risk of
miscarriage, sleep disruption, childhood impairment and chronic
fatigue symptoms are to be avoided.
With this knowledge, communities and some gardaí have become
seriously concerned. In the last few months, flashpoints have
become regular, significantly throughout the west, where mobile
phone coverage is weakest. Communities have confronted gardai and
repeatedly blocked attempts to build masts. Some communities are
camping out 24 hours a day to watch potential sites. Many are on
Garda stations - which are usually close to village centres,
schools and residential areas. Dublin government regulations say
that masts should not be sited close to schools or residential
areas, but this is happening all over. The mobile phone companies
offer money to schools and landowners to host the masts.
Yet residents and gardaí alike don't want the masts.
Garda sources say that the top officers in the Gardai have
recently sent out orders that community opposition and planning
obstacles have to stop. Gardaí have been sent in to talk to
County Planning Officers and warn them not to hold up the
construction of masts.
In the peaceful Sligo town of Cooloney, 60 gardaí were sent in at
6.00 in the morning to block the road and guard the site until
the mast was finished that evening.
Locals are completely against the location of the mast. It is
near a school - a breach of the guidelines. But they decided not
to protest on the day: ``There was no point in running the risk of
people being forcibly removed by the Gardaí,'' a spokeswoman said.
``It shows you what type of power will be used to have these masts
erected.''
In Keel, Achill Island, Mayo, a Garda was transferred thirty
miles because he was too sympathetic to anti-mast protestors.
Islanders chained themselves to the station demanding that the
Garda be reinstated and that ``alleged breaches of planning
regulations'' be dealt with. The Garda station at Keel, Achill
Island will remain closed until ``communications are restored'';
that is until the mast is up. The protest is still ongoing
outside the now closed Keel Garda station.
What these flashpoints and heavy presence of Guards reveals is a
sinister state involvement in private enterprise. Campaigners are
now questioning the role of Michael Lowry, the minister who
granted the mobile phone licence to ESAT, in this saga.
Although one bidder for the licence was prepared to pay up to £80
million to the state for the licence, Lowry then insisted that
the fee be capped at £15 million - low enough for ESAT to afford
it. Previously, he had said that the bid should be set by the
market. What campaigners want to know is whether ESAT gave Lowry
something in exchange for getting the licence? And what exactly
was the Dublin government's complicity?
![[An Phoblacht]](http://republican-news.org/graphics/title_gifs/aprn.gif)