Residents in the Co Donegal village of Kerry keel say they are still waiting for an indication from the Department of Justice or Esat Digifone as to when discussions will be held about the issue of a controversial telecommunications mast in the village.
It is now seven weeks since locals were promised further consultation after work was halted on the Esat mast. This followed clashes between protesting residents and gardai in which five men were arrested. Up to 150 gardai had been deployed in the village on December 2nd to ensure that locals would not prevent the erection of the mast, as they had done on two previous attempts.
The incident occurred on the morning of the Dail vote on the Budget, and after representations from two Donegal Independent TDs, Mr Harry Blaney and Mr Tom Gildea, the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, agreed that work would be halted pending further consultation. The mast was erected but without Esat antennae attached. The dispute posed further complications for the Government when the Independent TD, Ms Mildred Fox, said it was unacceptable that the masts issue be handled differently in Donegal than elsewhere.
Esat has insisted that it has a legally binding contract to erect masts at Garda stations around the State and that it expects this to be honoured.
A spokeswoman for local residents, Mrs Kay McGrory, said this week that they were still waiting for a response to a letter they wrote to Mr O'Donoghue. She said they would be willing to meet Esat representatives but stressed that their opposition to the mast had not lessened.