asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will take immediate steps to have a telephone kiosk erected at Kilpedder, County Wicklow, particularly in view of the fact that the closure of the post office at Kilpedder has greatly increased the need for such a kiosk.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Kilpedder (Wicklow) Telephone Kiosk.
4.
The existing telephone facilities in the area are considered adequate and it is not proposed for the present to provide a kiosk there.
Is it the policy of the Department at present to deprive rural areas of all services so as to be able to supply the demands of the supermarkets in the larger cities? Is that the new policy?
The straightforward position is that so far as the telephone service is concerned, that service has not been reduced in any shape or form. The point is that the sub-post office was closed on 31st October, following the resignation of the subpost-master, but in the meantime the same facilities for the use of the telephone up to 9 o'clock at night are available as existed prior to the closing of the office.
Surely the Parliamentary Secretary will appreciate that there is a difference between having a telephone in a post office which is open until 9 o'clock and in a private house the occupants of which have no obligation to stay open for the general public? If a telephone had been put in a kiosk outside the location of the former post office, it would have solved the problem.
A problem has not arisen for solving. The telephone is on the same premises. It is available within the shop up to 9 o'clock at night as it was when the post office was in operation.