asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will accede to the request for a telephone kiosk in Stranorlar, County Donegal.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Stranorlar (Donegal) Kiosk.
44.
There is a telephone kiosk at Ballybofey within convenient distance of the residents of Stranorlar which serves the Ballybofey-Stranorlar area. Provision of a second kiosk in the area is not warranted at present.
Will you only give Stranorlar what is available in Ballybofey?
That is right.
Were you ever up there?
I was.
If you had to walk from Stranorlar to Ballybofey to make a telephone call, you would have to walk half a mile.
The kiosk is situated on the border between the two areas.
Where? It is not on the bridge.
I have not got the map in front of me. If the Deputy wishes, I will send him the map.
I would not put the Minister to that trouble. It does not seem to me to be sufficient to put a kiosk in Ballybofey to serve Stranorlar. You would be a wet man before you got to Ballybofey.
The Deputy is exaggerating the situation, as he does many other situations.
I represented the area on many occasions. I ought to know.
Whether the Deputy represented it or not, there is no telephone kiosk going up in it so far as I know.
Could the Taoiseach teach the Minister a little restraint so that he would not lose his temper for nothing?
This does not seem to be a question in respect of which it is necessary to get cross, but I do submit with respect to the Minister that, if he knows the area, he should know that to walk from Stranorlar across the bridge to the Butt Hall, which is the first building in Ballybofey, must be in the order of a quarter of a mile. If you want to make a telephone call on a wet day in Stranorlar, you have to walk half a mile, which does not seem to be reasonable.
That is argument, not a question.
The same test is applied in Ballybofey and Stranorlar as anywhere else and I am satisfied that the situation is well met with the kiosk there, and so is the Department.
I doubt if anybody else in this House is.
I am quite satisfied that if a second kiosk were put up, it would not pay its way.
It might not but it would be a great convenience to the people.
The idea should be to give a service to the people, not to make it pay its way.