asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of applications for telephone service to his Department; the average length of time applicants are obliged to wait for service; the longest period of waiting experienced by applicants; and the reasons for such delays.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Telephone Service .
21.
(Dublin South-Central): There were 53,000 applications awaiting attention at the end of April. Arrangements had been made to provide service for about 9,200 and terms had been quoted to a further 1,800.
The average waiting time to date of applications on the waiting list is about 13 months.
The earliest applications on hands were received in 1972. The reason for the delay is that provision of service involves abnormal construction work; over six miles of new pole route in one case.
: Can the Minister tell the House if he has any comparative figures on the average length of time it takes an applicant in any European country in the EEC to get a new telephone? How long would it take an inhabitant of a new suburb near Manchester, Milan or Antwerp to get a new telephone?
(Dublin South-Central): I have not got that information.
: That is a separate question.
: Would the Minister agree that any of the people there would be amazed to find that in a partner country of the EEC it takes 13 months to get a telephone within five miles of the centre of Dublin.
: Question No. 22.
: The Minister gave an average, what is the average time for a person waiting for a telephone in Dublin and for a person waiting for a telephone in Kerry for instance?
: Two years is very common in Dublin at the moment.
(Dublin South-Central): Thirteen months is the average.
: Would the Minister agree that in many of the newer Dublin suburbs a wait of two years is not unusual.
(Dublin South-Central): It can happen.
: It can and does happen, nearly all the time.
22.
andMr. O'Donnell asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will furnish details of the criteria on which priorities are established amongst applicants for new telephones.
(Dublin South-Central): The main categories to which priority is afforded are:— Members of the Oireachtas, diplomats and chairmen of local authorities; public services including central and local authorities; persons engaged in health services including hospitals, doctors and district nurses; clergymen engaged on parochial duties; industrial, commercial and other undertakings providing a fair amount of employment; business and professions having particular need for telephone service, for example, travel agencies, registered hotel and guest houses, solicitors, full-time journalists; national unions and associations; existing subscribers moving to new premises; old age pensioners living alone who qualify under the Telephone Rental Subsidy Scheme operated by the Department of Social Welfare; members of local authorities; other applications in which really exceptional need can be shown for example on health or distress grounds.
: How many of the 53,000 on the waiting list are considered to be priority applicants?
(Dublin South-Central): It averages something in the region of 45 to 50 per cent of the ones already installed but I cannot say for the ones currently on the waiting list.