Vol. 222 No. 1
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he is aware that the telephone to a firm (name supplied) at Phoenix Park races broke down on Saturday, 19th March, at 12.30 p.m.; and that despite the fact that the breakdown was reported within minutes and that repeated complaints were made throughout the day they got no satisfaction or attention; if he will state the reason for this lack of attention; and what action he proposes to take to prevent a similar occurrence in future.
40.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if his attention has been drawn to an allegation that it is the rule rather than the exception that telephones go out of order on race days at race meetings; and what action he intends to take in the matter.
With your permission, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 39 and 40 together.
Telephones rented at racecourses by the subscriber in question are specially tested, and repaired if necessary, on the morning of each meeting or on the preceding day. The telephone at Phoenix Park racecourse was tested on Friday, 18th March, the day before the meeting, and the line was left in working order. On the Saturday afternoon, it was reported that the telephone was out of order. The check made revealed that the line was held in an engaged condition. The most likely explanation of this is that a caller to the number had—deliberately or otherwise — neglected to replace his receiver. This would cause jamming of the line which would continue until either the calling telephone was hung up or the connection was manually released by a repair man at the automatic exchange. The exchange serving the Phoenix Park telephone is not staffed on Saturdays and special attendance there would be arranged only for clearance of a fault affecting a priority subscriber such as a medical doctor.
The allegation that these racecourse telephones are as a rule out of order on race days is unfounded. In the past 15 months only two faults occurred on race days and these were promptly attended to. There have, however, been many complaints from the public that they cannot get through to such numbers because of their being continuously in use during race meetings. This is to be expected because at the race meeting in question and many others only one telephone is rented by the subscriber and this is quite inadequate for the number of calls attempted to be made on it. The subscriber's attention was drawn to this position some years ago with a suggestion that additional lines be rented, but this suggestion was not accepted.
I wish to make it clear that this subscriber has in fact been getting a measure of priority which is quite exceptional in respect of the maintenance of these racecourse telephones.
41.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he is aware of the very bad telephone service available at the present time, when many subscribers find that there are long delays, that the telephone is dead when the receiver is lifted, and that they are cut off in the middle of a conversation; and what action he intends to take to see that the people get an improved service.
I do not accept that the allegations made in the question are correct. The only serious difficulty at present being met by subscribers is that faults reported in the Dublin area are not being repaired as speedily as they should. As the Deputy is aware, this is due to the adoption of working restrictions by the maintenance staff concerned.
