asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of applications for telephone service outstanding in (a) Limerick City and (b) Limerick County; and when he expects to have the installation of these telephones carried out.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Limerick Telephone Applications.
49.
The numbers are (a) 220; (b) 150 A substantial number of the applications will be cleared within the next few months. It is hoped to clear the bulk of the remainder within the next 12 months.
Would it be convenient for the Minister to indicate if there is any prospect of the appalling arrears of telephone applications in the rest of the country being reached? When he spoke on his Estimate, the Minister said about 10,000 people were waiting for telephones.
They are not the same 10,000 all the time, as the Deputy must know.
No; but does the Minister anticipate any future date at which that backlog will be materially reduced?
The Deputy must realise that applications have been greatly accelerated over the past three years and that it is not the same 10,000 who are on the waiting list all the time. I cannot at the moment give a clear indication of when the Department of Posts and Telegraphs will be in a position to deal effectively with the waiting list of applicants because I am not in a position to know when the trunk cabling schemes which are in hand at the moment will be completed but it is expected that by next spring we will be in a position to deal more effectively with the waiting list and keep it within manageable proportions.
Is there an order of priority?
There is. There is a priority list but recently I have taken a decision to have the Department of Posts and Telegraphs Engineering Branch connect phones that are easy of connection, that is, phones that do not involve long lines, and that may mean that later applications will be taken in advance of applications that are longer in and it may be regarded as an order of priority also.
It is a possible explanation of a peculiar arrangement.
Deputies may take it for granted that every effort will be made by the Engineering Branch to reach the position at the earliest possible moment that telephones can be taken into the system on application.
Has the Minister received delivery of all the equipment that was ordered for telephone exchanges on the dates on which such equipment was contracted for?
That is a separate question, but the delivery dates are being maintained fairly well. Nevertheless, there is a good deal of equipment still to be delivered.
Is it not a fact that in connection with Kildare, for example, some of the delay is due to the non-delivery of equipment?
The Deputy should give me notice of that question.
The Minister ought to know.