Irish Telecommunications Investments Limited (Amendment) Bill, 1983: Committee and Final Stages .

Question proposed: "That section 1 stand part of the Bill".

Mr. Leyden

: Can the Minister give any indication of the effects of the devaluation of the punt on the original loans by the ITI? The bulk of the financing for this development came from the European Investment Bank and the new EEC Community instrument for borrowing and lending NIC. Has the Minister any indication of the effect it will have on the repayments? I fear it will mean there will be less money for investing in buildings and infrastructure in 1983. Can the Minister say what the projects are that the money will be spent on in 1983? This will be of great interest to Deputies and also to subscribers.

Even though our ambition was to have telephones on demand there is still a waiting list which, at the end of September 1982, was around 80,000 people. I understand — perhaps the Minister will refute this — that proposals for installations in 1983 have been reduced by about 10 per cent. If there is a reduction in the number of connections proposed for 1983, it could result in a reduction in employment in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. I know the Minister would not be in a position to give that information in detail but perhaps he could indicate the effects of the devaluation of the punt in relation to repayments on the original loans and also indicate where this money will be raised, whether on the Irish or European market.

Mr. J. Mitchell

: I do not have any information to hand on the effects of devaluation. The punt has been strengthening for the last couple of months on foreign exchanges so there will have been advantages in that regard. I do not have any information on how devaluation will offset those earlier advantages, but if the Deputy so wishes, I will communicate with him on the subject.

I can only give a general indication of how the money will be spent this year in the telecommunications field because, as the list is so long, I could not possibly specify everything. The main uses for expenditure will be expansion of the local telephone network, expansion and modernisation of the trunk network, new buildings for exchanges, area engineering headquarters and training schools, conversion of manual exchanges to automatic working, extension of subscriber trunk dialling and international subscriber dialling, expansion of telex and data networks and new services. I can let the Deputy have more details if he wishes.

In relation to the number of connections, it is projected that this year we will have between 70,000 and 80,000 new connections. That is a little less than was anticipated a couple of months ago but it is 11,000 to 21,000 greater than was achieved in 1982. In 1980, the waiting list was 92,000, at the end of 1981 it was 86,000, in 1982 it was 78,000 and, by the end end of this year, it could be as low as 50,000. By the end of next year we hope to have hardly any waiting list. There are a couple of reasons for the estimated reduction in the number of connections this year. One is that a number of staff have been diverted to repairs because there has been a serious problem in this regard, especially in Dublin. The recession is also affecting the demand for telephones.

Mr. Tunney

: I would like the Minister's reassurance, in financial terms, that there is an allocation which provides for the special needs of Dublin.

Mr. J. Mitchell

: I hope there will be an improvement in the situation in Dublin in relation to the provision of services, the speed with which they are provided and that that improvement will be evident in the coming weeks.

Question put and agreed to.

Sections 2 and 3 agreed to.

Title agreed to.

Bill reported without amendment.

Question proposed: "That the Bill do now pass."