den Aire Poist agus Telegrafa an gcuirfidh sé guthán poblí ar fáil i nGaoth Sáile, Contae Mhaigh Eo.
30. D'fhiafraigh
Ceisteanna-Questions. Oral Answers. - Telephone Service.
29. D'fhiafraigh
den Aire Poist agus Telegrafa an gcuirfidh sé guthán poiblí ar fáil i gCeathrú Thaidhg, Béal an Fheadha, Contae Mhaigh Eo.
Le do cheadsa, a Cheann Comhairle, tógfaidh mé Ceisteanna Uimha. 29 agus 30 le chéile.
Tá Gaoth Sáile agus Ceathrú Thaidhg i measc na n-áiteacha a bhfuiltear le cíoscanna a sholáthar iontu faoi scéim chíoscanna mo Roinne ach ní mór trunc-línte breise a chur ar fáil i dtosach ionnus go mb'fhéidir glaonna a dhéanamh ó ná cíoscanna san oíche. Tá súil na trunc-línte bheith ar fáil i míle naoi gcéad seachtó sé nuair a chríochnaítear scéim fhorleathan cábla sa taobh tíre idir Béal Átha an Fheadha agus Béal an Mhuirthid.
Níor chuala mé an tAire ró-chruinn ach sílim go ndúirt sé go mbeadh an tseirbhís seo ar fáil i 1976.
Sea.
An féidir leis an Aire a rá go bhfuil sé sin sásúil ó thárla go bhfuil tionscal á bhunú sna háiteacha sin anois agus gur Gaeltachtaí iad agus go bhfuil gá le seirbhís den chineál seo?
Ní féidir a rá go bhfuil siad sásúil nó nach bhfuil siad sásúil. Trunc-línte atá i gceist. Ní féidir liom brostú níos mó ná mar is féidir i soláthar na dtrunc-línte sin.
31.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will provide telephone kiosks at Terryglass and Ballinderry, Nenagh, County Tipperary, to cater for the public demand in the area outside normal post office hours.
The use made of the call office telephone in the sub-post office at Terryglass is not sufficient to warrant provision of a kiosk there at present. It is planned to provide a kiosk at Ballinderry under the current year's programme.
32.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will arrange for the erection of a public telephone kiosk at Coolick, Kilcummin, Killarney, County Kerry, which is about four miles from the nearest public telephone service.
33.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the present position regarding the proposed public telephone kiosk for the village of Fossa which is four miles from Killarney, County Kerry.
I propose with your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, to take Questions Nos. 32 and 33 together.
My Department is not at present providing telephone kiosks in areas such as Coolick and Fossa where there is no post office.
Is the Minister aware that Fossa is a village about four or five miles from Killarney?
There is no telephone kiosk there. There is a church, a school and some shops. There is no public telephone kiosk in the district. Would the Minister give the matter special attention?
Fossa is a village without a post office. It is in a thickly populated area about three miles from Killarney. It is roughly as described by the Deputy. Within a one-mile radius of it there are 87 houses, 31 of which have rented telephones. Ten of these telephones are coin-box phones. Seven of them are in guesthouses. There is one in a youth hostel also. Heavy use is made of the coin-box telephone in the licensed premises. As Deputies know, in rural areas kiosks are provided on the basis of replacing call office telephones in post offices which are used to a large extent. That is the priority system. I do not propose to alter it.
Is the Minister aware that in thickly populated rural areas such as Fossa a coin box telephone or a privately rented telephone is of little use to the public who may want to make private and confidential telephone calls?
I am aware of that.
Does the Minister propose to do something to rectify that position?
If the Deputy will permit me to reply to the next question which raises the general issue, I will endeavour to provide a general answer.
34.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will give consideration to the social needs of rural areas when determining the priority list for the erection of public telephone kiosks in rural districts.
The Deputy's question implies that the social needs of rural areas are not taken into account at present. This, of course, is not so but quite the reverse, in fact. In urban areas kiosks are provided only where they are likely to pay their way; in rural areas on the other hand they are being provided on an increasingly subsidised scale according as the facilities are being extended to areas which show lower and lower use of existing public telephones.
I have already indicated—I would refer Deputies to the Official Report, Volume 269 No. 7, column 877—that the present system of determining priorities will continue to operate until a better system can be devised. I invited suggestions for a more satisfactory system based on criteria which could be applied consistently and would not open the floodgates to demands for kiosks in areas where they would be little used. I would be glad to consider any suggestion on these lines from the Deputy or from any other Deputy.
Would the Minister consider a remote rural district which is about 14 miles away from the nearest priest, doctor or veterinary surgeon and which is a remote valley into which there is no communication in bad weather an area of social need for the provision of a telephone service?
This is quite difficult. The problem is that the need felt by individuals for this facility is highest in the areas where it would be least economic to provide it. The social need is recognised by the extent of the growing subsidy which my Department are putting into this. Deputies will realise that there is an upper limit. Each locality sees its own need without reference to the priorities which my Department under any Minister would have to have regard to and which my Department always have had regard to.
Would the Minister give us some indication of the amount of the subsidy concerned in a typical case? What would it cost to subsidise a box in the area which Deputy J. O'Leary referred to or in a similar sort of area?
I have this figure if I can find it.
I will put down another question.
There is no need to do that. Subject to correction and speaking from memory, the figure is around £140 per annum subsidy.
Am I correct in understanding that money is still the prime factor in this? Would the Minister consider as guarantors co-operative societies in which a group of people come together? I know the Minister is confined by the 1902 Act. I am asking the Minister could he accept co-operative societies as a group of people who could act as guarantors against loss?
The Deputy is raising a new matter.
That is all right. I asked for suggestions. This is a very interesting suggestion. I will have it fully explored. To go back now to Deputy Haughey's question, I have now the relevant information. Call offices in which the receipts are £42 or over qualify for inclusion in the 1974 kiosk programme. Kiosk takings depend on local circumstances. Since the annual cost of providing and maintaining a kiosk in provincial areas is calculated at £170, it is clear that the element of subsidy in that programme is quite heavy.
35.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when the telephone exchange at Millstreet, County Cork will be automated.
36.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when the telephone exchange at Kanturk, County Cork will be automated.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 35 and 36 together.
It is hoped to convert the two exchanges in question to automatic working within about four years.
37.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he is aware that applications for telephone service in the Dunmore East area of County Waterford have been held up for some time partly due to a shortage of equipment; and if he will state when this equipment will be available and when the backlog of applications will be cleared.
Yes. There is a temporary shortage of exchange equipment. Additional equipment is expected to be in service towards the end of the year. It is hoped to clear the present waiting list in the first three or four months of next year.
38.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the up-to-date position regarding progress on the telephone cabling scheme in Bray, County Wicklow.
Two main cabling schemes to serve the Bray exchange area were completed last year. Local extensions of these schemes to serve the Putland Road, Hollybrook, Herbert Road and Killarney Road areas are expected to be completed by the end of the year. Further extensions of the main schemes will be undertaken as required in 1975 and later.
39.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when a telephone will be installed for a person (name supplied) in Bray, County Wicklow.
By the end of this month.
40.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when a telephone will be installed for a firm (name supplied) in Bray, County Wicklow.
By the end of this month.