Anti-mast campaigners in Co Sligo were celebrating a major victory this week, after elected councillors ignored the advice of the county manager and voted to amend the county development plan to impose tough restrictions on the erection of mobile phone masts.
Before the vote the county manager, Mr Hubert Kearns, warned councillors that the move to ban masts from residential areas or near schools and hospitals could "send out negative signals to potential investors and there could be legal implications".
He said the amendment went against Government policy. A submission to the council from the Department of Public Enterprise also advised against the restrictions.
However, in an obvious reflection of the strength of feeling on the issue among voters, the amendment put forward by Mr Declan Bree of the Labour Party was passed unanimously. Mr Bree urged other counties to follow Sligo's example. Similar restrictions are in force in Donegal and Wicklow.
Mobile phone companies accepted that their business would be hit but claimed their greatest concern was for customers whose coverage would be affected.
Ms Olivia Dobbs of Eircell said it was "very serious for our business", would slow down development of the network and greatly diminish the number of areas where base stations could be placed. "And some areas will be left with very poor service," she said.
A spokesman for Esat Digifone, Mr Oliver Coughlan, said it was "ironic that the counties which need infrastructure most are the ones opposed to masts". He said Esat would appeal any planning refusal to An Bord Pleanala.
The full implications of the vote will only be felt when planning permission for all the existing masts within the county comes up for renewal. A council planning official explained that masts have been given temporary permission lasting five years. When applications are made for these to be renewed they will be assessed according to the new restrictions.
"It is going to make it very difficult for companies to find suitable locations," she said, and companies would also be restricted from erecting masts in some rural areas designated as environmentally sensitive in the county development plan.
Mr Bree rejected the arguments of the mobile phone companies. "Essentially what they are talking about is losing some profits and I don't think that is acceptable."
He said those in favour of the amendment were not against masts or mobile phones but "against the erection of masts in residential areas or near schools or hospitals", and those in favour of the amendment recognised the importance of developing mobile telecommunications systems. But "a balanced approach" had to be taken as there were "too many unanswered questions" about the health implications.
Mr Bree's amendment states: "As an immediate means of achieving reduced exposure, base stations and mobile phone telecommunications masts should not generally be constructed within one kilometre of smaller towns, villages, residential areas, schools, hospitals, child-care centres or nursing homes and not within 400 metres of a private dwelling."
A county development plan adopted last October in Co Donegal stipulated that no new masts would be located in built-up areas. Eircell said that as a result the erection of masts was significantly slower in Donegal than in other counties.
The impact on business is less clear. Donegal's county manager, Mr Michael McLoone, said he believed a good balance had been achieved between people's legitimate concerns and the need for coverage.
He said, however, that it might be "early days to make a judgment as to whether it has had any adverse impacts on people setting up businesses", given that the plan was in place for less than a year.
Mr McLoone indicated, however, that the restrictions may have to be reviewed in the future to ensure that all areas were able to avail of new "third-generation" technologies as they developed.
"As the requirement for communications technologies begin to emerge, so as to underpin the development of more remote areas, then we may have to review whether we can get the configuration we need," Mr McLoone said.
Mr Coughlan of Esat Digifone said that for third-generation technologies it might not be feasible to put underground copper wire cables into more isolated western areas and so more masts would be needed.
Meanwhile, mobile phone companies are also meeting significant opposition in Sligo town. An application by Esat Digifone to erect telecommunications antennae on a floodlight at Sligo Rovers' home ground was branded as "outrageous" by a local councillor.
The negative publicity prompted the club chairman, who admitted that "a good deal" had been offered, to pledge that Sligo Rovers would "never put the health of supporters in jeopardy".