In common with the other speakers, I welcome this Bill. I should like to give my views on the establishment of a new body, if that is possible, to spend this money, be it a semi-State body, which I think would be a very interesting idea, or even, if possible, to hand it over largely to private enterprise. The most important thing is to get the greatest benefit from the money being expended.
The present Department of Posts and Telegraphs is a dreary, drab outfit. There is a good case for taking the telephone system away from the Post Office end of the Department and having it entirely on its own. What strikes me most about the telephone service and the Post Office service in general is the dreariness and the drabness and the amount of red tape involved. It would be wonderful if the telephone system broke out on its own like the ESB and instead of having it controlled from the local post office to have a show shop, something like what the ESB have in every principal town, where people could go and do their business. The dreariness is dreadful, right down to the colour of the vans which operate around the country. I would ask the Minister to spend some of this money on a coat of paint to brighten the whole thing up.
Another thing that could be learned from the ESB is that they plan a campaign and inform the public in advance what to expect. They advertise in the local papers the areas that are to be visited and where they are to do rural electrification. They pick area by area. We are inundated with requests for telephones and we, in turn pass them on to the Minister. The whole thing just jams up the works. It would be far more satisfactory if the Minister could explain where exactly they are working or are likely to be working for the next year or so. We would then be in a better position to advise our constituents as to when they could expect to get service. The ESB are quite good at this. The Department of Posts and Telegraphs slip up badly.
There is a great deal of red tape in the telephone application business. The application just about goes around the world. First of all, if you have a main office in your town you fill in a form and you give it to your local postmaster. He, in turn, sends it to the telephone branch here in Dublin. The telephone branch then send the application back to the engineering branch in the area and ask if this application can be dealt with without top much trouble. When they have vetted the application they send it back to the telephone branch. Now, at this stage, if everything is in order, the telephone branch send an agreement to the postmaster who requests the applicant to come in and sign it. When that agreement is signed he then sends it back to Dublin. Finally, if everything is all right Dublin advise the engineering branch to go ahead with the job. That seems to be a very roundabout way to deal with a very simple thing like an application to instal a telephone. I would suggest to the Minister that this type of thing should be streamlined.
Senator West had a very valid point about the amount of liaison the telephone people have with the local authority, which must be almost nil in most cases. I have seen this in my home town of Dungarvan over the last few years. No sooner have the local authority provided a new road or especially a new footpath, which is a very expensive job, then the telephone people come along and break it up with, one would imagine, almost malicious delight. It must be costing the taxpayers a considerable amount of money because they have got to replace those footpaths. I would suggest to the Minister that the liaison between local authorities and his Department could be considerably improved.
The question of rural kiosks was mentioned here today. This is a big bone of contention between local representatives and the Department. I do not believe the Department should look on every kiosk as a profit-making operation. In rural areas you must give a concession. You must be prepared to lose money in order to provide a service and there is a great demand in isolated rural areas for telephones. They may not pay but they are vitally necessary.
It is a bone of contention between local representatives and the Department. I do not believe the Department should see every kiosk as a profit-making operation. In rural areas you must give a concession and must be prepared to lose money in order to provide a service. There is a great demand in isolated rural areas for telephones at crossroads or some other central point. They may not pay for themselves but they are vitally necessary.
We have had the luck in Dungarvan town and the mid-Waterford area of having the manual exchanges converted to automatic service. This has been a considerable boon to the area. I suggest you note that the suicide rate has dropped considerably there since the frustration and frayed nerves that went with the manual system have gone and the automatic system is working wonderfully. However, there are one or two matters I should like to point out as they may help in the future. The planning of the new numbers, when an exchange is to be converted to automatic working, should be done years in advance. At present we have the ridiculous situation that if you want to find a number in a neighbouring exchange area you have to get on to the inquiries section. This must be creating an enormous amount of work in the exchange. I suggest that the numbers be made out two or three years in advance and be placed in the telephone book previous to the exchange being converted. I know we get a sheet of the new numbers but it only relates to the exchange in which you are situated. I would suggest that all the numbers in the exchange area and in the neighbouring exchange areas be placed in the telephone book in advance.
I should like to refer briefly to local directories. Some chapters of the junior chambers of commerce have done very praiseworthy work in that they have made up local directories for the benefit of the public. However, there seems to be some objection to this from the Department. I do not know whether this stems from copyright considerations or whether the Department are afraid there are inaccuracies contained in the directories but this is a wonderful local service. I know the Dungarvan Junior Chamber of Commerce received a letter from the Department stating that under no circumstances were they to proceed with the printing of this directory. If the Department do not wish the junior chambers of commerce to publish such a directory then the Department themselves should do so.
Finally, I should like to ask the Minister if he has any intention of going underground? I do not mean to be funny in saying that but is any of the £175 million pounds to be used to stop the countryside from being spoiled by overhead cables as it is at present? This is more particularly obvious in the scenic areas where the population is sparse. I know it is not economic to put wiring underground but lines of telephone poles and wires through scenic areas should be avoided if at all possible. The Minister should use some initiative in this direction in order that we may keep our countryside beautiful.