The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, cut a poor figure in the Dail last Tuesday when he explained a decision to halt the erection of an Esat Digiphone antenna at Kerrykeel Garda station in Co Donegal. It would appear that a large number of local residents, including women and children, had gathered to prevent the erection of a Garda radio mast and an accompanying Esat antenna. There was, Mr O'Donoghue said, "considerable agitation and clearly the potential for conflict" and he had conveyed his view to the Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, that work on the mast and antenna should be halted.
In spite of the Minister's bluster in the Dail, it is clear that the threatened withdrawal of voting support on Budget day by Independent TD, Mr Harry Blaney, was the deciding factor in postponing the work, even though the State was party to a binding legal contract with the company. By bowing to such public pressure, the Coalition has emphasised its own vulnerability and, inevitably, it will increase the number of public demands being made on the four Independent TDs who support the Government. Already, Mr Tom Gildea of Donegal South West has insisted that such antennae will not be erected in Glenties in his constituency and Ms Mildred Fox of Wicklow has sought clarification of the legal situation.
It may be that we are witnessing the beginning of a slow dissolution of this Government. It is quite accurate for the Chief Whip, Mr Seamus Brennan, to say the minority Government is made up of three distinct components: Fianna Fail, the Progressive Democrats and the four aligned Independents. All three components had to work together, he said, and were "stuck with a certain discipline". Certainly that appeared to be the case when the Government was formed more than a year ago. Fianna Fail and the Progressive Democrats published their programme for government. And special private arrangements on constituency matters were entered into with Independent TDs. In the last number of weeks, however, there has been no evidence of the discipline to which Mr Brennan refers. Mr Jackie Healy-Rea of Kerry South appeared, single-handedly, to redraw the economic boundaries for the State's regionalisation programme. And Mr Blaney and his colleagues have now made demands in relation to the installation of mobile telephone antennae. It is as if a competitive factor has entered the equation which formerly bound the Independents to the Government. And they are being judged by their constituents on the size of the concessions they extract.
The role of the Independent TDs in reflecting public concern over mobile telephone installations cannot be faulted. A joint Oireachtas Committee produced a report on non-ionising microwave radiation from telecommunications masts last Tuesday and found it did not generate "an unacceptable health hazard". A lack of consultation with local people and the absence of a public information programme had led to unnecessary fears and anxiety, it said. The committee urged remedial action and suggested the number of new masts should be kept to a minimum and located outside built-up areas. If immediate action is taken on these matters, it may yet save the Government's blushes. For the action taken by the Minister for Justice has only postponed, not solved, the Coalition's problem.