Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)

Fianna Fáil will be calling a vote on this motion. This is showman politics. We offered to introduce legislation into the House, which is where we are supposed to make laws. This motion is only following up on what an Oireachtas committee did, not in the previous Dáil but in the one before that, and which made all the recommendations the Senator proposes in the motion.

The Senator spoke about the precautionary principle. What brings the motion to the House today is the World Health Organisation's recent report suggesting the use of mobile phones by people under 16 years of age could be dangerous. The European Environmental Agency, which reports to the European Union, referred to the precautionary principle about which my colleague spoke in his address. Our Bill proposed the precautionary principle in making people aware of the potential dangers to children. We on this side of the House are not alone in trying to make people aware of this, but it is about how to do it. In the North, the NHS distributes informational leaflets to doctors' surgeries and elsewhere.

Our proposal, which the Government refused to take and debate, was for legislation. Instead of talking and proposing that the Minister do something, our job here is to propose legislation. However, that did not happen. In Britain the NHS refers to the dangers to children. What is peculiar about the motion is that mobile phone companies already inform people that mobile phones are dangerous. As my colleague pointed out, a person is supposed to keep the phone an inch away from his or her head. The instructions with a BlackBerry recommend keeping it one inch away from the ear when using the phone. Why does the company do that? If a user ever decided to sue at a later stage, the company can ask whether the user always kept the device an inch away from the ear as advised in the 96 page document he or she got when purchasing it. It is likely that he or she would not have done.

However, our proposal was somewhat more practical especially for children whose bone density is less and on whom electromagnetic fields would have a greater effect when using mobile phones. We proposed that the information the mobile phone companies provide anyway should be printed on the phone itself. I am not saying that people will stop using their phones, but I want everybody to be aware of what the phone companies are trying to make people aware of, but in a very low key way in the hope that people will not catch on to it. Lloyds of London, probably the best risk assessors of all time, cannot even quantify the risk to the extent that they will not insure mobile phone companies against possible litigation in a class action suit by people who could develop melanoma and brain tumours as a result of long-term mobile phone usage.

Europe had its first case when a labour court in Italy gave compensation to an employee who was obliged to be on his mobile phone by his employer. He was given compensation because the labour court ruled that it was most likely - obviously the burden of proof was less and did not need to be beyond all reasonable doubt - that the mobile phone was the cause of his brain tumour and subsequent death.

The World Health Organisation has proposed applying the precautionary principle espoused by the European Environmental Agency. The health service in Northern Ireland distributes leaflets advising that children should not use mobile phones. Mobile phone companies advise people to keep the phones an inch away from their heads. Lloyds of London refuses to insure any mobile phone company against litigation. The labour court in Italy has stated that a person's brain tumour is most likely to have come from the long-term intense use of a mobile phone. However, today's motion merely hopes the Minister might do something down the line.

Fianna Fáil has a Bill ready to go that would do all that and make people aware. Once people have the information, they are quite entitled to do whatever they want. We are talking about the children under 16 years of age, who should be texting. Phones are important from a safety point of view. We do not suggest not using mobile phones, which are a part of everyday life, but that people should be aware of the potential danger. While it took 47 years to prove that tobacco smoking caused cancer, in that time there were many studies that were inconclusive. All the tobacco companies were able to fund those studies and claim it was very hard to prove a case beyond all reasonable doubt. We are not trying to prove anything beyond all reasonable doubt and are merely trying to apply the precautionary principle. We do not want to wait 47 years and then discover that perhaps we should have done more to make people aware. It is a democracy and people are entitled to make their choices of their own free will. However, it is not appropriate simply to talk about it like an Oireachtas committee.