I should like to thank you, a Cheann Comhairle, for giving me the opportunity to raise on the Adjournment the matters arising out of a reply to a Dáil question which I put to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and which was answered on Tuesday. The reply establishes quite clearly that the telephone system in the Dublin area is in a state of chaos. The reply I received establishes that in the Dublin area there are 47,500 outstanding applications for telephones. Of these, 25,700 relate to applications for telephones for business purposes and 21,800 relate to applications for telephones for people's homes.
The state of the telephone system in Dublin — and I presume Dublin is a mirror image of what is happening in other areas — is now causing serious economic damage. It is effectively impeding the establishment of new businesses, it is frightening off many foreign business concerns from establishing bases here and is seriously preventing the expansion of existing businesses. It is also damaging the industries which have export potential and who find it impossible to operate a proper import-export business without adequate telephone and telecommunication services.
It is causing major social problems for many people, especially the elderly and sick, who are often dependent on the telephone as a lifeline to the outside world. It is also creating major difficulties for many people whose professions and businesses require them to be contactable for 24 hours a day. I am not saying that this is the fault of the present Minister. This is a problem which he has inherited from his predecessors and I do not think it is something with which we should play politics.
It is a major irritant that it seems to be impossible for ordinary members of the general public to get accurate information as to when telephones will be supplied to them and what the position is in relation to the provision of telephones generally. Anyone who has a telephone problem does not try to resolve it by contacting the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. They get in touch with their Deputies and TDs are spending hour after hour, week after week, trying to get information as to when people will be supplied with telephones and when repairs will be carried out.
I have been a Member of this House for three successive administrations. It has been my continuous experience that when I contact the Department of Posts and Telegraphs by way of telephone call or letter to find out when constituents or businesses will be supplied with telephones, I get gobbledegook civil service replies which are utterly meaningless. At one time the only course open to a Deputy to find out any information was to put down a Dáil question and at least that often elicited the brief but useful reply that a telephone would be supplied at a specified time. If nothing else, it gave some indication to the poor applicant when the service would be made available to him.
The position now is that the Deputies cannot even rely on the replies to these Dáil questions. When one put down a Dáil question a year-and-a-half ago one was told that a telephone would be supplied in about a year but we are now getting civil service gobbledegook in reply to Dáil questions. When we ask why the telephone was not supplied we get more gobbledegook about massive cabling that has to be laid and the amount the Department have to do and that hopefully in about another year the telephone will be supplied. The situation is not good enough and it should no longer be tolerated by Members of this House of any party. The general public have reached the stage where they despair of anything sensible emerging from the Department of Posts and Telegraphs. It often appears that if one gets one's telephone it is more by accident than by design. The same applies to the carrying out of telephone repairs.
The implications for Government of the present situation are worth noting. If 47,500 applicants, some of whose applications date back six years, were today the proud possessors of functioning telephones — the fact that a telephone is installed does not, of necessity, mean that the damn thing will work — and if each of these applicants was paying a telephone bill, on a bi-monthly basis, of £70 that would generate the princely sum of £200 million per annum.
There is a very grave problem in this area. Perhaps a Minister of any Government cannot articulate this in public but I have no doubt that a portion of the problem relates to the work practices within the Department of Posts and Telegraphs which I think are a matter of grave concern. I appears that in the context of the telephone service very often the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing and I sometimes suspect that each finger of each hand does not know what is going on. If a Deputy seeks information by way of a letter and then, in despair, puts down a Dáil question, it is not unusual to get a reply ultimately to one's letter, two months after the Dáil question has been answered, the letter stating the exact opposite of the reply to the Dáil question.
The state of the telephone service in Dublin is a national scandal and I do not accept that a transfer of the telephone service to An Bord Telecom will result in an automatic improvement in the situation. Whatever Minister happens to be there when An Bord Telecom finally gets its responsibility will merely be fortunate enough to be protected from some of the political flak by disclaiming responsibility in the future. Such a transfer will mean that no longer will this House be able to bring the telephone service to account in this House.
