The government has had a very rough ride over the phone masts issue. There have been widespread protests all over the country. People have torn the masts down by hooking them up to tractors, and cut them up with angle grinders. People have mounted 24-hour pickets over weeks to ensure the masts did not get up or the companies get onto the land. A government deal with ESAT to allow them, without planning permission, to put their mobile phone transmitters onto Garda station masts, brought massive protests, many of which have been successful.

And then at the start of April, the government introduced its answer - a draconian legislative proposal which allows mobile phone companies to get the land they want for a mast by compulsory acquisition order, without agreement from the landowner and without any recourse to local government, still less Bord Pleannála.

It is an incredible proposal, which it appears the government is trying to sneak through. It is due to be debated in Leinster House before the summer.

The bill has been described by John Toolan of BRAIN, (The Ballinamore Radiation and Information Network) as a ``quite breathtaking raid into the area of private property rights'' which would drive a coach and horses through most basic and long-established civil, legal and constitutional rights.

The bill, which is called The Telecommunications (Infrastructure) Bill, 1999, proposes that a network operator can reach agreement with a landowner to erect a mast, or, where the landowner does not agree, the operator can apply to a three-person board for an ``acquisition order'' to ``acquire compulsorily a right over land for the purpose of establishing or maintaining fixed telecommunications infrastructure''.

Furthermore, under the proposed bill, a nominee of the network operator's may come onto the land ``to survey, line sight, drill, bore, probe or excavate, or carry out soil tests, and, where necessary, remove soil''.

The landowner may not ``unreasonably'' withhold consent for the nominee to enter the land, and owners who get the notice in time have just 14 days to go to a District Court, to restrict access of the nominee - on which matter the court alone has discretion.

The proposed legislation is characteristic of ``Banana Republic'' order. It is a draconian way to suppress popular protest and real concerns on grounds of health and preservation of the landscape, as well as concerns over the devaluation of property which are the results of the erection of the masts. And at what costs to civil rights? Is this the cost of providing an attractive environment to telecommunications companies to enter the Irish market to bid for the share which Telecom intends to sell in June, when Telecom Éireann is due to be privatised?

The reasoning behind the proposed legislation is quite evident. The government is gearing up to the sell-off of Telecom Éireann shares, supposedly to open up the telcommunications market to liberalisation in line with EU laws. Of course, the sell-off will do no such thing - the market will be dominated, as it is at present, by one or two of the world's largest conglomerates in this supposedly infinite growth sector. But ``putting in place a favourable environment'' for the institutional and corporate buyers of Telecom's shares is directed towards ensuring a heavy oversubscription for the shares to ensure a high price at flotation. The only beneficiary will be the exchequer, which will be selling valuable assets belonging to the public, in order to pay off debt. Crazy economics by any measure, especially when the exchequer is awash with money.

However the bill would allow mobile phone companies to do whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted, ``It makes a complete farce of planning regulations. At least at present, these companies must seek permission from the local authority and Bord Pleannála,'' says Leitrim Sinn Féin Councillor Liam McGirl. ``Are our legal and civil rights so cheap? It raises the question who is governing this country, for whose benefit?''

It was Liam McGirl who last March successfully brought a Section 30 motion (Under the 1963 Local Government) which overturned the Leitrim county manager's decision to give planning permission for a mast at Tully, Ballinamore.

``All the way down the West coast there have been protests at the masts,'' Sean MacManus, Sinn Féin's EU election candidate in Connacht, points out. ``This proposed legislation is simply no way to deal with the peoples' just concerns over their health and their environment.

``As it is, successive governments have behaved disgracefully over the masts issue. In 1996, Nora Owen, minister in the previous government, made a deal with ESAT. That company got exemption from planning controls to install equipment on existing masts at 217 Garda stations. In return for this, ESAT agreed to assist Garda Stations, to the tune of £3 million, in upgrading their systems to a digital system.

When ESAT looked to extend this to a further 201 masts in other Garda Stations which had not already installed masts, they were turned down for planning permission, and out of 145 applications, only 12 had been granted by the end of last year.

Opposition by local authorities has been widespread. In Kerry, Mayo and Donegal alone, a total of 33 mast applications have been refused to ESAT. By the end of last year, ESAT already had 500 base stations or masts, which includes the 217 they got to use in Garda stations, and the company claims to be able to cover 93% of the 26 counties.

One of the things which has angered local people most has been An Bord Pleannála which in some cases has overturned local authority refusals of planning permission to put up a mast - often refused by the council in the first place because it contravened the council's own development plan, which is passed and agreed by the full council. ``It would seem that we only pay the merest lip-service to planning regulations. There is no regard for local councils' authority in planning matters. This is something which has to change,'' says Sean MacManus.

The issue of the masts came to a head last summer, when people in the small village of Keel, on Achill Island, objected to an ESAT mast going up on their local Garda Station. Sixty Gardai were brought in from other areas to protect ESAT's interests and to override the feelings of local people. Five people were arrested, handcuffed and held in the station for several hours.

There was similar angry protest in Donegal at Kerrykeel Garda station, and people were arrested, as they had been in Achill, by some 150 gardai, drafted into the village to ensure the erection of the mast. But the government and Gardai had to back off under threat from Independent TD Harry Blaney, who made it clear that he would not be able to get to Dublin to vote for the Budget unless matters were resolved in Kerrykeel.

Mildred Fox, the Independent TD for Wicklow, then wanted to know why, if contracts for masts could be set aside in Donegal, shouldn't they be set aside in Wicklow. Scarcely democracy, but then it worked in defence of the people.

It remains to be seen whether the admirable concern of these deputies for the opinions of local people against the erection of masts will lead them to challenge the government's new legislation on masts when it comes to the sticking point in Leinster House this summer.

People continue battle against the masts

    
It's all about cutthroat competition. The government policy to privatise Telecom Éireann, which owns Eircell, has spurred this. The companies are trying to outbid each other in the race to control as much infrastructure as possible, which will raise the value of their shareholdings. They need the masts to prove that they can expand ad infinitum.
``It's our land. It's up to us to look after of it.''

``. . .and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree, . .and wrought wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger. . .For they served idols...'' (2 Kings, c.17. gratis Vincent Browne)

Digi phone masts weren't actually under discussion in Biblical times, but they might as well have been. For whatever about the ``wicked things'' and idolatrous practices of the worship of consumerism and those little hand-held things without which people feel naked as a result of cut-throat competition between Eircell and ESAT, high things have gone up all over the country. They have been erected on high places, town watchtowers and garda stations and now even under the beautiful trees of the rolling hills of Wexford beside the Barrow.

It was just under these lovely trees that Countess Bernstorff stood with her staunch fellow campaigners last week as they persuaded a Telecom Éireann lorry and Garda escort to turn back from the site at Berkeley, outside New Ross, where Eircell plans yet another mast for mobile phone users.

Were the Gardai and the government-owned state company, Telecom Éireann, going to force these people to submit to a mast on their own land, which none of them agree to?

The protestors are on 24-hour-a-day vigil to stop Eircell putting up a mast above them on the hill. And they've been there now for three weeks. The County Council turned down Eircell's original planning application, but An Bord Pleannála overruled that decision.

``Over 50 people wrote letters,'' says Anne, of their detailed and expensive submission to the planning board. They wrote ``please don't do this, for myself and my family''. When An Bord Pleannála gave permission, over the head of the county council, people just couldn't understand. People said: ``We wrote to them, and told them what we thought. I had to tell them,'' records Anne ``that the Bord didn't really care. It was terrible.''

The campaigners are camped out in a container in the bitter cold of last week. Its Alice in Wonderland stuff.

``Would you have a cup of tea Countess?''

``I think I would.''

It was badly needed. The campaigners, at least 200 strong, are extremely well organised.

Anne Bernstorff is no dozer but an intelligent and articulate woman, who lives right next door to the proposed site. She describes how a deputation had visited Eircell to discuss the proposed mast:

``A young lady offered us tea and biscuits and told us how she loved the country. We said that we wouldn't take tea or biscuits, that we were touched by her love of the country, but could we talk to someone who could deal with our quite detailed questions.'' That didn't turn out to be the case.

``Nor could they give us a written guarantee that there would be no ill effects from the masts, nor would they take out insurance against possible damaging consequences.''

What do they want so many masts for?

``It's all about cutthroat competition. The government policy to privatise Telecom Éireann, which owns Eircell, has spurred this,'' Anne replies. ``The companies are trying to outbid each other in the race to control as much infrastructure as possible, which will raise the value of their shareholdings. They need the masts to prove that they can expand ad infinitum, which the technology of third-generation phones will require.''

It is the next generation of phones which will see Internet connection and word-processing on a small fold-out keyboard, shopping and banking, and video phoning all available by mobile phone. By last year, Telecom's network had grown to a record 204,000 customers. They estimate that there are 550,000 mobile users in the country now. By the year 2000, they estimate that this will have grown to at least 1 million users.

Is reception poor in this area?

``No, We're told its excellent. They have more than sufficient capacity in this area, they've masts already down at Rathsillagh and Clonroche, only a few miles away.''

Why don't Eircell and ESAT share masts? Anne looks with some disbelief at the stupidity of the question. ``Because they are in competition.''

What do they want so many masts for?

``They can always be used. In the long run, they are useful to hang all sorts of little things on.'' And of course Anne is right. There is no limit to the little things they might hang on the mast, once they have it up - all 18 meters of it.

Collette O'Connell from Dungarvan has delved into the complex issues around the question of the health hazards of microwave/non-ionising radiation, the sort of radiation transmitted from the MMDS and mobile phone transmitters which are placed on these masts.

``People are worried at what it will do to their health, she says, ``but they are also worried because it's our land. These companies can't just come in here and tell us what to do with it. Its up to us to look after it.

``Last year, ESAT tried to put a mast up above us at the other side of the hill, at Lacken - the very place where in 1798 the United Irishmen camped during the battle of New Ross. They say that 3,000 people were killed there. That was no place for a Digiphone mast, and we defeated ESAT.

``Now it's the turn of Eircell, but we are determined. All the farmers here are not having it on their land. We'll stay here until Eircell goes away.

``I really don't like the things that are happening. The community values are getting forgotten, the spirit which grew out of poverty, of helping each other, is getting left behind. Now it has become too individualist. Everyone is out for the quick buck, the tricky deal, to gain a commercial advantage. It's as if we've grown too fast, with the EU and all that. We are fudging the edges of integrity.''

That is something Anne Bernstorff and her fellow campaigners won't be doing.