asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why a public telephone kiosk may not be provided at Glendowan, Churchill, Letterkenny, County Donegal.
13.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Telephone Service.
12.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why a public telephone kiosk may not be provided at Drumany, Letterkenny, County Donegal.
14.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when he proposes to provide a public telephone kiosk at the Diamond, Ballyare, Ramelton, County Donegal.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 13 and 14 together.
Kiosks are not being provided in rural areas such as those in question where there are no post offices.
I did not hear the Minister's reply.
Kiosks are not being provided in rural areas such as those in question where there are no post offices.
Arising out of the Minister's reply, in the case of Glendowan, Churchill, there was a post office there and that post office has been taken away. No telephone has been provided. There has been a local effort, as the Minister is probably aware, to fund a coin box in a private house but this has not worked out and I am asking the Minister specifically to take into account the fact that there was a post office and, had it remained, there would be a telephone available but there is none because there is no post office. It seems a sort of vicious circle. This is a desperately isolated area.
I take it the reason for the cessation of the post office facilities in the area was the isolation. There is a very low density of population. This is a rural area within a mile radius of which there are about ten houses and a population of about 60. I could not possibly undertake to provide kiosks in every area of that description because the cost has to be borne ultimately by the user of the postal services and it would be unjustifiable to do that in these circumstances. If there is strong enough feeling in the area the local authority can provide a guarantee against loss. That applies in all three cases. All three are similar. The Deputy, as a former Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, must realise that if he were in my position he could give no answer other than the answer I have given.
I am sorry I am not in the Minister's position because I would, from my experience, short though it may have been, be fully of the opinion that telephones should be provided in isolated areas as a social service. In the case of Glendowan, I would ask the Minister not to include it with the others because in the case of Glendowan there was a post office, which was discontinued, and the isolation of the place is the real reason why there would need to be a telephone. The Minister should take a look at it because it is a special case.
Question No. 13 refers to a telephone at Drumany, Letterkenny. This is an area in which there is within a mile radius, half a mile, a quarter of a mile upwards of 200 houses, most of them new, and there is no facility in the town itself by way of a public telephone kiosk to accommodate these people, even after they travel a mile-and-a-half. I would ask the Minister specifically to look at this again on the basis that there is no doubt but that it would prove to be an economic proposition and could be provided by the Department. This shelving it on to the local authority is not the way to do the job. It is dodging the issue and the Minister's responsibility in regard to this service.
I must dissuade the Deputy from making a long speech at Question Time.
Sir, I have three questions on the Order Paper.
That is apart altogether from the number of questions on the Order Paper.
I have three questions which were answered together.
There are rules governing Question Time to which the Chair must adhere.
The question which were accepted by the Minister as being similar, for which I do not blame him, are totally dissimilar except that they all refer to telephones. It is for that reason I am trying to deal with them separately because they cannot be answered together. I want the Minister to look at Question No. 13 on the basis of a service that would pay for itself, not as one of the uneconomic ones. In relation to Question No. 14 could the Minister say whether in relation to Ballyare district, Ramelton, there has been a guarantee given by the council against loss for the erection of the kiosk? Is the Minister aware that the guarantee has been given?
The Deputy has said that the cases are totally dissimilar except in the demand for kiosks there. There is, I am afraid, another similarity, although the Deputy has difficulty in accepting it, that is, that in my Department's view there is no prospect that kiosks at any of the three places mentioned would earn receipts which would come anywhere near the annual charge on a kiosk, averaging about £250 a year. The Deputy will appreciate that if the Department do this in one place in relation to one such rural area, they will have to do it in other cases or Deputies in the House would rightly demand to know the reason why. We cannot extend specially favoured treatment to given areas nor are we doing so. As regards the last question about Ballyare, as far as I know no such guarantee has been offered. If in any of these places the local authority were prepared to provide the necessary guarantee against loss, my Department would certainly provide a kiosk under that guarantee. The same applies to a number of other public bodies which might be ready to provide such guarantee. My Department cannot do this for these areas without doing the same for other equivalent areas at prohibitive cost to the users of such services.
I thank the Minister for his great pains in giving me all this information. Can I take it in the case of Ballyare that he is not aware of any guarantee having come from the county council?
That is correct.
In the case of the Drumany area the Minister does not think it would be an economic proposition. Would he have a further examination made of this by his local people to see if it might now be an economic proposition because it is growing very fast? As Question No. 12 is an unusual case, would the Minister look at the situation there since it ceased to be a post office, and is not quite in the same category as others? There was a post office and now there is not. It is very isolated and needs the telephone kiosk. Would the Minister look at the matter anew in that it is not a run of the mill case?
Question No. 15.
I am prepared to ask my Department to have another look at these matters, especially in relation to Drumany, to see if the situation has changed. Should the situation change in relation to population density and prospects, of course another decision might be possible, but I am afraid I cannot hold out much hope for the moment.
In looking at the economics of providing much needed telephones in very isolated areas has the Minister regard to the cost of vandalism in our urban areas?
The Deputy is raising a wider issue now.
15.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the cause of delay in utilising the new public telephone kiosk erected some time ago at St. Mura's, Fahan, County Donegal.
The public telephone kiosk at Fahan was erected on what was understood to be public property. Immediately following its erection an objection to its location was received on behalf of persons who claimed to be the owners of the site. Following protracted correspondence with the interests concerned an alternative site was selected close to the original one and the necessary consents for this have recently been received. It is hoped to have the kiosk resited and brought into service within the next few weeks.
I know the location of the existing kiosk. How the Department will justify to their accountant the expenditure of moving it to a new, near site is more than I know. The kiosk is being moved on the basis of a claim of some locals, to whom it is doing no damage whatsoever, other than giving a facility to the natives as distinct from the runners-in who are objecting to it. The kiosk is sited at a junction of two roads that is public property and certainly nobody has any right to it particularly the person who has been objecting to it. It is a scandal that public money is wasted in moving this kiosk to suit this gentleman.
I hesitate to take up a great deal of the time of the House in relation to this matter. I would be prepared to provide the Deputy with all the background material that he might require. The fact is that a legal claim was made here, that it seems to have been a moot point as to the ownership and rather than engage in possible protracted litigation my Department decided in the public interest to accept the offer of an alternative site.
Could I, even at the expense of further delay in putting into service this telephone kiosk, ask the Minister to have this matter further examined from a legal aspect and not to know-tow to a pressure operation on a purely personal basis, claiming rights to ground, that obviously has been public for so long and long before this gentleman arrived in the area, that it cannot possibly be true that there is any legal standing for his claim? Let him take his action to put the Minister off it instead of the Minister looking to get an action to put him on it.
That is not my advice. The situation is that arrangements are in hands at present to have the kiosk removed and that it is expected that it will be brought into service within the next few weeks. I do not think it would be really helpful now to the people concerned to put this matter back into the arena of possible litigation.
The people do not agree with what is happening. If the Minister has any money to spare to resite this telephone kiosk he should use it in some other way.