asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will consider providing a public telephone kiosk at Ballygurteen village, Clonakilty, County Cork.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Cork Telephone Kiosks.
9.
: A kiosk at Ballygurteen is not warranted.
: What information has the Parliamentary Secretary to substantiate the claim that a kiosk is not wanted at Ballygurteen? That kind of answer is not acceptable.
: It is a straight answer.
(Cavan): That means it is a crooked answer.
: In reply to the Deputy, the reasons are that it is not warranted simply and solely because we feel sufficient use would not be made of it. There is not really sufficient need for it.
: Am I to assume from the Parliamentary Secretary's reply that this answer is typical of the Government's attitude towards rural Ireland? You are assuming that places like Ballygurteen are going to die out in the near future and that if a telephone kiosk were provided there sufficient use would not be made of it. I hope in the not too distant future someone else will be dealing with these applications and that we will have a different reaction.
10.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if, in view of the closure of Ballinacarriga post office, Dunmanway, County Cork, a public phone kiosk will be provided there.
: A kiosk at Ballinacarriga is not warranted.
: Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that up to recently we had a post office in Ballinacarriga but that this was closed down to effect some economy? If so, surely the least the State could do is to provide a public telephone for the people in that locality? Surely there is no justification for the answer the Parliamentary Secretary has given me so far as this place is concerned, where you have closed down a post office and saved the State £300 or £400?
: The population of Ballinacarriga is 20 people. There are six private telephones in the district, including two coin box lines. One of the coin box telephones is in the village and the other is half a mile away. Both are available up to 11 p.m. and at all times in an emergency. I know the Deputy is going to say that they are private——
: Yes, purely private.
: If the Deputy is speaking in connection with emergencies, those are catered for. If he is not speaking in connection with emergencies, the position is that the use of the telephone in the post office there before it was closed down was not such as to merit the provision of a kiosk.
: Surely, having closed the post office and knowing, as the Parliamentary Secretary should from his brief, that Ballinacarriga is as crossroads village, with church and schools, and a general meeting place for the people in the area, as such it is entitled to have at least a public phone box installed, seeing you have taken away the post office? Am I to assume that this is the Government's attitude to places like this which they term isolated from their point of view—to let them die out and remove facilities from them?
: We cannot have a speech on this.