asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he has received a complaint from the proprietors of Butlin's Holiday Camp, Mosney, County Meath of an almost complete breakdown in the telephone service to and from the Camp; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Holiday Camp Telephone Service.
6.
A complaint has been received from Butlin's Holiday Camp about delay on telephone calls arising from shortage of trunk circuits at Drogheda exchange. Equipment to increase the number of circuits is being installed and it is expected that the work will be completed in three months' time.
Does the Minister know that Butlin's is a holiday camp which operates during the summer months? In three months' time it will be closed. There are about 4,000 people there, including 700 staff. It takes up to five hours to get a call from Dublin to Mosney. Will the Minister do something about it?
I am aware the holiday season will be over in three months' time, but the equipment for Drogheda was ordered about two years ago, and more, and it was delivered only quite recently. The Engineering Branch of the Post Office will install the equipment as quickly as possible. I do not see that there is anything further I can do in the matter, no matter how much I may wish to provide these necessary services to the holiday camp at Mosney.
Is the Minister aware that the position has been considerably aggravated following the introduction of the direct line through Drogheda? When it was a dial through Bettystown one could get through in half an hour. Is he aware that the situation has now become almost impossible, possibly because the Minister has tried to help by giving a direct line through? Is he aware that the position is so much worse that an application may have to be made to revert to the original arrangement?
That is a separate question and I have not got the information. I am aware that the telephone traffic has increased very much on the Drogheda exchange over the past two or three years because of the increase in business.
If what the Minister says is correct, can the Minister explain why it is that over a period of about six weeks this chaotic condition has occurred all over the country? Up to that it was easy to get a call in a reasonable time. Has business improved so much over the last six weeks that everything has become chaotic?
The Deputy is extending the matter now beyond the terms of his question.
It was the Minister who introduced it.
There never was at any time previously such a volume of telephone traffic as that being dealt with by the telephone service at the present time. There never was so much equipment being delivered or on order for the telephone service. There never were so many people, I believe, employed in the Engineering Branch of the Post Office as at the present time. I have taken all the steps open to me since I became Minister to cope with the position. The Government have invested far more money in the telephone service since 1960 than ever before. We have to wait until the Engineering Branch of the Post Office has dealt with the extraordinary backlog of trunk and circuit work that fell to be done since I became Minister.
The Minister should have concluded by saying that never before was there such chaos in the telephone service.
Never before was there such a volume of business in the service, and the extraordinary part is that the telephone service with such deficiencies is able to provide for the volume of business that is being transacted at the moment.