asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if it is proposed to make any cutbacks in the telecommunications development programme for 1982 with specific reference to (i) cutbacks in stores purchasing, (ii) building contracts being held up and (iii) delays in finalising cabling contracts for contractors.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Telecommunications Development Programme.
3.
The capital allocation for telecommunications development in 1982 has not yet been decided.
Will the Minister of State accept that it is normal practice to order in advance stores for the requirements of building contracts and that this should have been done to ensure that building contracts which were ready to start this year and which, we are all well aware, have been postponed, would go ahead in 1982? That answer is totally inadequate to the question posed.
That is not the information sought by the Deputy but if he wants information about stores and cables, there has been no cutback regarding the programme for 1982 in the purchase of stores and cables.
I asked specifically if it was proposed to have any cutbacks in relation to stores, building contracts and cabling contracts. I asked a specific question.
I am sorry, I misunderstood what the Deputy asked. There are no cutbacks in the programme for 1982.
I accept that that is what is in the brief of the Minister of State, but is he aware that in the major stores area there have been cutbacks of 40 per cent from certain suppliers for next year in relation to building contracts? Building contracts which were ready to start have been postponed and cabling contracts which were tendered for and ready to proceed have been re-advertised. Is that not a clear sign of cutbacks?
No, quite the contrary. The Department now are in a much better position to assess the needs than they were when the programme was first launched. The building costs first projected three years ago are now out of date and they have to be reconsidered, but that is all that has to be reconsidered. There is no cutback for 1982.
If the Minister of State has not the information in his brief perhaps he would inquire from the stores department and the major suppliers of stores equipment — specifically telephone exchange equipment. Stores orders for next year have been cutback by 40 per cent. That knowledge is freely available to me and surely it is available to him.
If the Deputy wishes to give me that information I will have the position checked for him. I do not see any purpose in the Deputy making wild allegations like this. If he has information to that effect and if he gives it to me I will have the matter investigated. I am telling him what the official position is at this moment, and that is what he asked for.
One final short supplementary. The Minister of State is asking me for information. Surely he is in charge of his own Department and it is up to him to find out the situation on the ground. Everybody knows the situation on the ground except the Minister himself. If he had been listening to the Gay Byrne Hour a couple of weeks ago he would have heard the stores people live on the radio saying that they had not got the material they required.
That is far from the truth. There is no scarcity of stores. There was a scarcity of stores particularly in Donegal until about June this year.
(Interruptions.)
The information available to me in the file is the official information. That is what I am going by. If the Deputy wishes to challenge that——
I am challenging the Minister now to give us a specific instance.
——I will extend the courtesy of my office to the Deputy to allow him to give me the information which he thinks he has.
(Interruptions.)
The Deputy should stop misleading the House with his fireside yarns.
The Minister of State said that there had been no cutbacks. Can he give a reason to the House why the building contract second stage has not been started in Sligo?
That is a completely separate question——
It is in the question.
——but I will give the information to the Deputy if he wishes. I have not the full details on Sligo and the difficulties in Sligo are more apparent to the Deputy than they are to me, but they did not arise only since June. They were there for the last three or four years.
(Interruptions.)
Is the Minister aware that the contract was awarded in May and work has not begun yet? There have been cutbacks in the building contract second stage in Sligo.