More than 120 people representing community and environmental groups concerned about the health effects of mobile phones and telecommunications masts, protested outside Dublin Castle.
After opening the conference on the safety of communications technology, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, met representatives of anti-mast groups from the west of Ireland, Co Waterford, Co Cavan and Co Dublin, and the Irish Campaign Against Microwave Pollution (ICAMP) for an hour. Many of their members also attended the conference.
Ms O'Rourke said she was aware of the public concern about such technology. The issue had recently taken up two hours at a Fianna Fail parliamentary meeting. At community level, those concerned were "mostly women, incensed by a lack of hearing of what they want to say. They claim they are moved from Department to Department."
While she had no responsibility for planning, she was determined there would be a coming together of all relevant Departments to ensure "a combined move forward in the best interests of communities". She would also be recommending that a Cabinet subcommittee be formed to look at the issue.
The ICAMP spokeswoman, Ms Lorely Forrester, said that, having heard the speakers' submissions, she did not believe the degree of uncertainty was adequately acknowledged. In such circumstances, a policy of "prudent avoidance" of masts in residential areas was pertinent.
Meanwhile, the director of telecommunications regulation, Ms Etain Doyle, confirmed she had written to the major licensed operators, Telecom Eireann, RTE, Eircell, Esat Digifone and MMDS operators, advising them that the office was undertaking a comprehensive, independent audit to ensure emission levels from their systems were not exceeded.
"The audit includes on-site measurements of at least 30 sites throughout the country," she said.
