asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if a second public telephone kiosk will be provided in Clifden, County Galway.
Written Answers. - Telephone Service.
177.
Not at present. The existing facilities are not yet used sufficiently to warrant provision of an extra kiosk.
178.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when the telephone exchange at Kilronan, Aran Islands, County Galway will be automated.
It is hoped to convert Kilronan telephone exchange to automatic working in about four years.
179.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will consider granting continuous telephone service to all subscribers in the Cleggan and Claddaghduff areas, County Galway.
Subscribers in the Cleggan and Claddaghduff areas are served by Cleggan exchange which has 34 subscribers. The introduction of continuous service at Cleggan is not warranted at present. A number of Cleggan subscribers have service when Cleggan exchange is closed by means of switching over the trunk lines to Clifden exchange and more subscribers can be given continuous service in this way.
193.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of persons awaiting installation of telephones in Galway city on 31st January, 1974.
About 700.
194.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he is aware of the serious deterioration in the telephone service over the past six months; and whether he has any plans for an immediate improvement in the service.
The answer to the first part of the question is "no".
As regards the second part of the question there are not, and never were, any such things as "plans for an immediate improvement in the service". Serious plans, leading to real improvements, have to be laid well in advance. The over-riding requirement in relation to such plans is the provision of adequate capital. Most of the problems affecting the telephone service at present result from under-capitalisation in the past. The Government's intentions in relation to the future can be measured by the most recent Telephone Capital Act, which provides for capital expenditure of £175 million over the next five years. The work of improvement and extension goes on all the time. In fairness it should be added that, just as many of the defects in the present service are due to failures in relation to capitalisation on the part of the previous Government, so also—on the credit side—many of the improvements now coming into effect were planned under that Government.
Improvements effected over the past six months include the opening in Dublin of a major new exchange at Rathmines, the conversion to automatic working of the Dungarvan exchange area and the provision of extra exchange and trunk equipment in various other centres. Over the next few months a 12,000 line instalment of a new 20,000 line exchange will be brought into service at Ballsbridge; the Clonmel area will be converted to automatic working; and a new international exchange will be opened in central Dublin. Later in the year, major new automatic exchanges will be opened, one in Tallaght and the other in the GPO. In the provinces the Cavan and Fermoy areas will be converted to automatic working. Numerous other schemes are on the way.
I have previously pointed out that the telephone service difficulties which obtain in many parts of the country, due mainly to overloading of exchanges and trunk lines, did not develop overnight and they cannot be remedied quickly. Major exchange schemes normally take approximately two and a half years from the date on which they are ordered to the date on which the equipment comes into service. The planning and other preliminary work required has to be initiated much earlier particularly where new buildings are required.
There have recently been exceptional service difficulties caused by the severe storm damage in the past two months.