Vol. 416 No. 2
132 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Minister for Tourism, Transport and Communications if it is her policy to have the cost of international calls from Ireland uniform throughout the State or if there should be a possibility of lower charges in areas of high concentration of population.
Under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, 1983, it is a matter for Telecom Éireann to make schemes providing for all changes which are to be made by it. The company may not increase any charge under a scheme without my concurrence. There are no proposals before me at present to alter the charges for international telephone calls from Ireland. Should such proposals come before me they will be considered on their merits. However, apart from the impracticability of applying discriminatory charges, I would not welcome proposals which would fix one level of charges for calls from areas of high concentration of population and a higher level for calls from the remainder of the country.
