Vol. 412 No. 1
5 Mr. Currie asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications whether, in view of developments in relation to the accounting rate system and other factors, he anticipates that he will soon be able to announce a reduction in international telephone charges; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
The initiative in reducing telephone charges, including international charges, rests with Telecom Éireann and under the provisions of the Postal and Telecommunication Services Act, 1983 my approval for a reduction in charges is not necessary.
Telecom Éireann's commitment to reducing charges has been well publicised. Telecom Éireann sets out their pricing objectives as being: to achieve a strong competitive position within the EC in international calls; to eliminate differences between outgoing and incoming prices for international telephone calls on key routes.
In line with this policy, and with my approval, a tarriff package will be brought into effect by the company in January 1992. This package will reduce the national telephone bill by 8 per cent or almost £50 million in a full year.
It has been my policy to ensure a steady reduction in telecommunication charges and the Deputy can be assured that this will continue. Negotiations in relation to accounting rates are carried out on a bilateral or multilateral basis by the telecommunications operators or administrations. In the case of Ireland this is Telecom Éireann.
While agreeing with the Minister that this is mostly a matter for Telecom Éireann, does he remember comments he made at the last Fianna Fáil Ard-Fheis when he said "I will be taking action within a few weeks to reduce telephone charges"? He did not refer to the importance of Telecom Éireann then. Would the Minister agree that the Irish business community and exporting community are suffering very considerably because international telephone calls here are 40 per cent higher than in France and 27 per cent than in the United Kingdom and Germany, and that the Irish Small Business Association came to the conclusion quite recently as a result of a survey that our charges were 40 per cent higher than the European Community average? In view of these circumstances, would the Minister agree that urgent action is required to do something about it, particularly in view of international movements both at the level of the International Telephone and Telegraph Consumers' Association and also at European Community level to make reductions and that reductions ought to be made here as a matter of urgency?
From 1 January 1990 leased lines have been reduced up to 50 per cent to Europe and up to 45 per cent to North America. Further reductions of up to 70 per cent in domestic and cross-Channel leased lines have been in place since 2 April 1990, and from 1 January 1991 there have been further reductions in leased lines of 23 per cent to Europe and 17 per cent to North America. I agree with the Deputy that telecommunication charges are too expensive here, particularly international ones, and that is why I was pleased with the £50 million package which is to go into operation in January 1992 to extend local areas to deal with peak and off-peak calls and to reduce costs generally. I have been pressing Telecom Éireann for a further reduction of about 10 per cent in international calls at or about the same time, next January or thereabouts. The Deputy is quite right. I have been pressing them and we have had some progress. I will continue to press them particularly in the international side where, I accept, the calls are too expensive.
