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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 Dec 1979

Vol. 317 No. 9

Written Answers. - Telephone Service.

249.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when a transfer of telephone service will be effected for a person (details supplied) in Dublin in view of the fact that applications subsequent to this application (details supplied) have already been met.

As indicated in reply to a question on 11 July 1979, provision of service for this applicant is dependent on major underground cabling works which are not expected to be completed before the end of next year.

The other applications of which details were supplied were made before that of the particular person referred to.

250.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the reasons, if any, for not extending the practice of entrusting cabling work for the installation of telephones to outside contractors in order to provide all outstanding applications in the South County Dublin area with service within a reasonable time.

Contractors are employed extensively in the Dublin area on provision of main and junction cables, and I assume the cabling work the Deputy has in mind is the local cabling involved in connecting subscribers' premises to the nearest distribution points. Because of the volume of such work awaiting attention two contracts were placed recently with outside contractors to supplement the efforts of the Department's staff. The question of placing further contracts will be considered in the light of experience of performance of those contracts and of progress by departmental staff.

251.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the current position in regard to the installation of telephones in Dublin and if he will make a statement on the matter.

There is, I regret, a waiting list of over 30,000 for telephones in the 01 area at present. Approximately one-quarter of the waiting list is for business lines and includes some 2,000 lines at 50 industrial estates. The remainder are residence applications and include applications at over 200 housing estates with 20 houses or more.

The big waiting list is due to two factors, namely, a substantial increase in the demand for telephones in 1977 and 1978, resulting from the buoyancy in the economy, the demand in 1978 having been 30 per cent higher than in 1977, the previous highest demand year, and secondly the non-availability of cabling in many areas throughout the city which restricts greatly the number of new connections that can be made.

Cabling work in the Dublin area was affected seriously by industrial action and its aftermath throughout much of 1978. New cabling works were disrupted later by the need to divert all jointing staff to maintenance work to restore service following servere flood damage to cables last winter and by stores shortages arising from the postal dispute.

Cabling work in Dublin is being speeded up in every way possible. The number of jointing staff—the key group involved—is being increased by 50 per cent; the way in which jointing work is carried out has been reorganised, and contractors are being employed to supplement the efforts of the Department's staff. Progress is being closely monitored, and the question of placing further contracts will be considered in the light of progress both by the contractors and by departmental staff.

Priority in the cabling programme will be given to the needs of newly established industries, but it is planned to accelerate the cabling of residential areas also throughout the coming year. The expectation is that upwards of 150 of the 200 housing estates referred to will be cabled and that service will be provided to the waiting applicants in these estates by the end of 1980.

Installation staff resources generally in Dublin are being increased and it is planned to instal up to 25,000 telephones in the 01 area in 1980, much the biggest number installed in any year so far. The groundwork for a continuing increase in the number of connections in the following years will, it is expected, also be laid in 1980.

I would refer the Deputy also to the £650 million telephone development programme announced last July which provides for a greatly accelerated pace of development for the telecommunications services generally including the provision of a high quality service promptly. Progress towards achieving these objectives will, however, be gradual, the time assessed by the Department and by the Post Office Review Group for reaching the programme objectives being a minimum of five years.

252.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if telephone rental charges are similar for subscribers on the automatic system as those with telephone apparatus which must be cranked to make contact with the local telephone exchange.

Yes. This has been the position since the fifties when the rentals applicable to lines connected to small manual exchanges were reduced to standard rates.

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