Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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125. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on reports of an increasing number of cancer cases in a locality where a phone/communications mast is erected. [24918/13]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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Issues relating to the potential health effects of non-ionising radiation and electro-magnetic fields are a matter for the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government.

It is a condition of various Wireless Telegraphy Licences issued by the telecommunications regulator, ComReg, that mobile and telecommunications licensees must ensure that non-ionising radiation (NIR) emissions from transmitters are within limits set down in international guidelines.

In order to assess compliance ComReg has put in place a Programme of Measurement of Non-Ionising Radiation Emissions, under which surveys are conducted near a sample number of licensed transmitter sites nationwide each year. Each survey involves measurement of emission levels at the point of highest emissions (in a public area) associated with the transmitter. I understand that the emissions levels continue to be within the limits set by the internationally agreed guidelines.