Sir, - Melanie Taylor (August 4th) hits the nail on the head. No Government department is prepared to take action on behalf of schools and pupils in relation to the siting of mobile phone masts at or near schools.
The report of the UK Independent Study Group strongly urged that "`a precautionary approach" should be adopted on the question of the long-term effects of the emissions from mobile phone masts on school children. The board of management of the national school which my children attend is at present in contact with the operator of the mast located beside the school and with the ODTR (Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation).
The board requests that the "beam of greatest intensity" from the mast should not fall anywhere within the school grounds, which is one of the recommendations in the UK.
The UK government has seen fit to act on the report's recommendations and to support schools in such actions. The worrying aspect of the Irish situation is that no such support is offered here. If the board of management, fulfilling the responsibilities which the Department of Education delegates to it, has its request turned down by the mast operator, to which body can the board turn for support? Will anybody temper the pace of telecommunications progress with a little caution?
Perhaps if the board of management of every school in the country affected by the issue contacts the mast operator and the ODTR, something might move. And perhaps local planning authorities could include this as a further condition of granting planning permission for such masts, given that many of the original masts are close to the end of their first five year period and the operators must apply to the planning authority for a renewal of permission for the masts. - Yours, etc.,
Bruce Maxwell, Hampton Court, Clontarf, Dublin 3.