Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 2 December 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Social Protection

Rural Hubs, Broadband and Mobile Phone Coverage in Rural Ireland: Department of Rural and Community Development

We are very familiar with the matter and have a lot of close engagement with industry. As I outlined, it is a matter for the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications primarily. I know the EPA is very active. The Senator may have seen some research that it published in the past couple of weeks. It touched upon 5G radiation, ionising and non-ionising. I will butcher an analogy, and I apologise to the EPA for this, but it always says that spectrum is spectrum - it is there, we are not creating it - and the question is how one uses it. It is like a road, and the devices are what one puts on the road. We need to get that message out that there is nothing inherently dangerous about the spectrum, the only question is its use. If the Senator is interested, I can point her in the direction of a lot of material. It is something that the broadband officers would be engaged in at a local level and is something we have briefed chief executives on. It has been raised all across the country at local council chambers. We have provided materials to support them in addressing those concerns. It will definitely be an ongoing issue.

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