asked the Minister for Transport and Power if he is aware that a number of persons in certain areas in Cork South-West have not yet been provided with current; and when it is expected that the Electricity Supply Board will be able to provide service in these areas.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Electricity Supplies in South-West Cork.
7.
I would refer the Deputy to the reply I gave to a question by Deputy Crinion on 23rd April, 1963.
What is the nature of such reply?
The Deputy wants me to repeat it? In the first place, there is one rural area in West Cork that has not been developed, that is, Dunbeacon. The work on that will be completed in about a month. In the remaining areas, the ESB have sent out canvassers to get agreement from as many persons as possible to take supply so that prices will be as low as possible and there will be the fewest number of extra service charges and so that the work can be done at once.
The position in some of the poorer and isolated areas is that the prohibitive special charge which the Board imposes on applicants is the main difficulty. Could the Minister say if the Board have in mind to wipe out that special charge system altogether? The only people affected by it are those living in the remote areas.
I explained on several occasions that as a result of the passing of the last Electricity Supply Bill, the subsidy was raised. It placed the consumers not yet joined to the network in the position that there are 77,000 out of 112,000 consumers in the developed areas who can secure connection with the network without paying any extra service charge and 23,000 can secure it by paying up to 50 per cent of the extra service charge. Then there are some people for whom the cost for connection would be as much as £200. As the cost of joining those people to the network was regarded by the Government as almost prohibitive, they were offered, as an alternative, a bottled gas subsidy. In about 10 or 15 years, we expect that 95 to 96 per cent of all rural consumers will have joined the network, which we regard as satisfactory by comparison with other European countries.
This is a national service. Irrespective of where a household is located, the inhabitants are entitled to have the current at their disposal on the same terms as it is available to people living in built-up areas or in more populous rural centres.
The Deputy had better raise the matter on the Estimate.
It would be far better to raise it on the Adjournment.
You should have raised it ten years ago with Deputy Norton when the subsidy was withdrawn.
Your leader said he would give it back. He did not do it— another false promise by Fianna Fáil.