Gormley criticises Parlon for refusal to meet parents over mobile phone masts
Green Party Chairman John Gormley TD has criticised Minister for State Tom Parlon for refusing to meet parents affected by mobile phone masts which have been erected by the Office of Public Works on a building next door to St Mary’s College and close to St Louis Schools in Rathmines.
Speaking ahead of the protest taking place today at 4:30pm outside Minister Parlon’s office on St. Stephen’s Green, Deputy Gormley said, “The Minister, together with his party colleague Michael McDowell, gave parents false hope in October 2005 that these antennae would be de-activated. However, this has not happened, and the Minister is now effectively washing his hands of the matter by refusing a meeting with parents.”
In answer to a parliamentary question tabled by Deputy Gormley last week, Minister Parlon said that “a meeting with local parents would not serve any useful purpose at this stage”.
Parents, local residents, public representatives and workers have been campaigning for over a year against the location of masts on Ardee House, a publicly-owned building close to both schools. In October 2005, the Minister wrote to campaigners to say that he was asking the mobile operators to de-activate the antennae pending the report of the InterdepartmentalCommittee on the Health Effects of Electromagnetic Radiation.
“I subsequently learnt through questions asked in the Dáil that the operators had refused to comply with this request,” said Deputy Gormley. “The Minister says there is nothing further he can do, but parents want him to take sterner action against the mobile operators in question. At the very least, he can ensure that these operators do not receive further licenses until they de-activate the transmitters at Ardee House. At present he is only withholding licences temporarily.
“It took a great deal of political pressure over a period of almost a year to get the Minister to take heed of this issue. Parents will not let him simply drop the matter, and today’s protest is a demonstration that they will maintain political pressure on the Minister and his cabinet colleague, local TD and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell,” concluded Mr Gormley.