The parents of five children attending national school in Easkey, Co Sligo, yesterday applied to the High Court to bring proceedings against Esat Digifone Ltd over the proposed site of a transmission station.
Mr Justice McCracken gave the parents permission to bring an application for an interlocutory injunction against Esat and the State on Monday next.
Mr Frank Clarke SC, for the parents, told the court that cellular mobile and personal communications base stations could operate as soon as the mast was set up. He applied for a temporary injunction to halt the development.
Mr Justice McCracken refused the temporary injunction, but said he would permit counsel to serve notice of Monday's hearing.
In an affidavit, Mr Peter Loftus, a solicitor on behalf of the parents, said the children were attending a school within 60 metres of the proposed site of the mast at Easkey Garda station.
The station would consist of a number of antennae mounted on a mast which, when operational, would emit radio frequency radiation which was pulsed.
Mr Loftus said that because there was an exemption to the requirement for planning permission for such a development, the parents had been denied an opportunity to voice their objection. The parents were gravely concerned the station would have an adverse effect on the health and well-being of the infants.
Mr Loftus said that as the electromagnetic radiation from such a base station was "highly penetrative and ubiquitous" it was not possible to avoid it and children would be irradiated without their consent.
Mr Loftus said the technology employed in the cellular mobile and personal communications industry was new, highly complex, and its use had been permitted without it first having been proven to be safe.
Esat and the State denied there was any danger or risk to health.
Mr Loftus said his clients apprehended that the communications industry, including Esat, was too closely associated with persons or various groups and task forces which had been involved in recommending guidelines for limitations on exposure to radio frequency fields.
The parents apprehended that the industry was regulating itself without any or sufficient regard for public health and safety, he said.