asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will state, in relation to the Grange Wood estate in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, (a) the date first given as the one by which telephones would be provided in the estate, in response to an application for service; (b) the reason or reasons for the delay in providing the service; (c) if underground cabling for telephones exists in the estate; (d) if temporary overhead cabling will be provided, if necessary, at applicants' expense, to meet the demand for service; and (e) the estimated cost, in (i) capital and (ii) current terms, of providing all applicants with a telephone service by January 1979.
Written Answers. - County Dublin Estate Telephone Service.
466.
(a) On the basis of a tentative cabling programme the local residents' association was informed in June 1976 that it was expected that service would be provided for applicants in developed parts of the estate later that year. When a firm programme was prepared later for cabling needs generally it was found that the demand for cabling works generally was such that the provisional forecast made could not be met. The association was informed in April 1977 that the necessary plant would not be available before the latter part of that year.
(b) and (c) Cables for the estate were laid in November/December 1977 but the necessary jointing work could not be done because the staff who would normally attend to it had to be diverted to other work, primarily to maintenance of existing subscribers' lines. Cabling work in the Dublin area virtually ceased during the industrial action early this year. On the resumption of work the jointing staff had to be assigned to clear the large backlog of faults on subscribers' lines that had built up and to the provision of cabling for urgent industrial and commercial applications.
(d) and (e) Regrettably, because of continuing pressure of business applications which accumulated in the course of this year it will not be possible to provide service for applicants in Grange Wood by January 1979 from either underground or overhead cable; service by underground cable can be provided as quickly as by overhead cable. The estimated cost of completing the work necessary to provide service is £3,000 capital charges; no part of the cost of provision will be chargeable to current account.