Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 13 Feb 1997

Vol. 474 No. 8

Written Answers. - Telephone Charges.

Brendan Smith

Question:

62 Mr. B. Smith asked the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the discrimination which exists against telephone subscribers in rural Ireland in relation to telephone subscribers in the Dublin area who have to call Government Departments; if his attention has further been drawn to the fact that a call from the Dublin area to the Revenue Commissioners in Limerick is charged on a local call basis, whereas people in any other part of the country outside the Limerick telephone exchange area have to pay trunk call rates; the proposals, if any, he has to rectify this imbalance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4079/97]

Minister for Finance (Mr. Quinn)

As indicated in my statement of 19 December 1996 on this matter, an interdepartmental expert group dealing with telecommunications matters, and chaired by my Department, is currently addressing the question of equal cost telephone access for the public to Government offices, Dáil Question No. 35, ref. 24927/96 of that date refers. While preliminary indications suggest that the provision of such a facility would place a significant burden on the Exchequer, I am hopeful that the group will find a basis for progress in this area.

On the specific issue of the Limerick office of the Revenue Commissioners, the availability of access at local call rate to this office for subscribers in the Dublin area is a beneficial byproduct of the decision to introduce the Government telecommunications network, or GTN. This network provides efficient and cost-effective communications services to Government offices throughout the country and primarily to decentralised offices, such as the Revenue Commissioners office in Limerick. Department head offices in Dublin use the GTN to transfer telephone calls to decentralised offices at no extra cost to the caller. Individual Departments bear the costs of providing such facilities to their clients.