GRA wants assurance on safety of new radio system

The Garda Representative Association is to instruct its members not to use the force's new £85 million digital radio system if its concerns about safety are not addressed, according to a member of its central executive.

Garda John Tuohy, of the Dublin south-central division, made his comments after the Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, inaugurated the pilot phase of the system in Dublin yesterday.

The GRA had been seeking a meeting with Garda management and the Department of Justice for several months to discuss their concerns, he said, but had not yet had one. "If we find that our concerns on safety are not addressed, we will instruct our members not to use it", he said.

The Department plans to replace the current analogue Private Mobile Radio (PMR) system with the digital Terrestrial Trunked Radio (Tetra) system. The PMR system, which has been in place for 15 years, is said to be "on its last legs". There are also concerns that people with scanning equipment can listen in to it.

According to Supt Jim Jeffers, of the Garda communications section, Tetra offers complete security, vastly improved sound quality, encryption features and the capacity to transfer data and photographs to a garda's handset.

However, the new system, which was introduced by British police on a pilot basis in Lancashire at the beginning of this year, has caused concern about the safety of electromagnetic radiation emissions from handsets.

The concern centres on the 17.6Hz operating frequency assigned to Tetra. The sets emit radiation in pulses 17.6 times a second, a level said by a British government expert group on mobile phones and health to be able to penetrate deep into the brain and possibly damage cell communication.

The author of the British report, Sir William Stewart, concluded that systems modulating at frequencies around 16Hz "should be avoided if possible in future developments of signal coding".

The British Home Office has ordered a review of existing research on Tetra although it is pressing ahead with plans to introduce it in police forces throughout Britain by 2005.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice said that Tetra would be kept under "ongoing review to ensure safety and health [were] not adversely affected". He added: "We know of the speculation in the UK, but we have no evidence to suggest that Tetra is unsafe."

Asked what examination there had been of the safety of Tetra, he said that he could not give details.

Supt Jeffers said that a meeting had been arranged with the GRA to discuss its concerns.

However, Garda Tuohy said he was disappointed that the GRA had not yet been consulted. "We have major safety concerns. We haven't been consulted about the pilot, and this is a major project," he said.