(Dublin Central) asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the dates on which the building of the new telephone exchange at Crown Alley, Dublin, (a) commenced and (b) was completed.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Telephone Service.
15.
The information requested is: (a) 7th October, 1971, and (b) 4th February, 1974.
(Dublin Central): Has the Minister any information regarding the cost of the building?
The building cost approximately £500,000 and the building and exchange cost £10 million. The building was not the most significant part of the cost.
(Dublin Central): Will the Minister not agree that if it were not for the planning carried out by Fianna Fáil when in Government we would not have the exchange today?
The Fianna Fáil Government are entitled to their due share of the credit for this exchange. That share may be roughly assessed by the investment on this project which was £500,000 up to the change of Government in 1973 and £9½ million since that time.
(Dublin Central): Is it not obvious that if the structure had not been there——
This is leading to argument. I am calling Question No. 16.
It took the previous Government six-and-a-half years to get to the point where they were putting a roof on the building. Five days before the election Deputy Collins went down to the building to announce that the project was under way. The much more onerous and costly task of installing the equipment and getting it to function has been completed in less time than it took Fianna Fáil to get to the point of putting a roof on the building.
16.
(Dublin Central): asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if, in view of the result of a survey by the CII in which poor telephone service is blamed for unnecessary cost to industry, he has any immediate plans to further improve the system.
17.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he has any plans to improve the present standard of the telephone service.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 16 and 17 together.
The answer to both questions is yes. A new 20,000-line subscriber exchange was opened on Monday, 6th December, in Crown Alley in Central Dublin together with three new tandem exchanges and a new trunk exchange; in addition a greatly expanded system of underground junction cables was provided to interlink the new exchanges with one another and with other exchanges in the Dublin network. The whole project will substantially improve the service in the centre of Dublin served by Crown Alley exchange and in the Dublin area generally.
The new trunk exchange is a major one which will enable thousands of extra trunk circuits to be added to the main arterial system between Dublin, the main provincial exchanges and cross-channel exchanges. Some hundreds of extra trunk circuits which could not be connected pending the opening of the new exchange have been brought into service and some thousands more will be added in the course of the next year. These will progressively improve the STD service.
Other new exchanges are being installed in Dublin "01" area at Blanchardstown, Balbriggan and Shankill; buildings are in course of construction for new exchanges at Belcamp, Malahide and Maynooth, others are in advance planning stages; existing exchanges are being extended in a number of centres and equipment is on order for many others, including a further major trunk switching centre for many others, including a further major trunk switching centre to cater for the rapid growth of trunk traffic in the years ahead.
Outside the "01" area similar progress is being made. This week new automatic exchanges were opened at Thurles and Cashel. These will be followed shortly afterwards by Templemore. Conversions of manual exchanges next year will, among others, include those at Castlebar, Ballina, Listowel, Skibbereen and Lismore.
Major new automatic exchanges are planned for Galway, Cork, Limerick, and hundreds of existing automatic and trunk exchanges are to be extended including those at Cobh, Glanmire, Mallow, Drogheda, Athlone, Tuam, Sligo, Killarney, Tullow, Droichead Nua, Kildare, Naas, Arklow, Cahir, Gorey, Wexford. Equipment to convert about 120 manual exchanges to automatic working has been ordered. Buildings for new key trunk switching exchanges are being built or in advanced planning stages for a number of centres including Cork, Tralee, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, Athlone, Mullingar and Waterford.
I have already mentioned how the new trunk exchange in Dublin will help to improve the trunk service throughout the country by enabling thousands of extra circuits to be connected. These circuits will come from numerous major trunking schemes which have been in progress for some time such as the upgrading of the southern co-axial cable, from 600 to 2,700 circuits. Plans are in hand to improve the service on every route where extra circuiting is needed. The co-axial cable to the north-west will, for example, be supplemented by a high capacity microwave route.
Plans for a new direct cross-Channel microwave route with capacity for thousands of circuits are well advanced and the scheme is expected to be completed in about two years. Improvements in direct dialling services which have been arranged include extension of the range of these services to Britain and abroad. Next week STD service will be opened between the "01" area and Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Liverpool. These facilities will be extended to the larger automatic exchanges outside Dublin next year. Early in the New Year the international subscriber dialling facilities at present available from central Dublin city to most countries in western Europe will be provided to a number of countries beyond Europe including the USA, Canada, Australia and Japan. They will be extended later in the year to all non-coinbox telephones in the "01" area.
Telephone development schemes of the kind I have mentioned make heavy demand on capital. The investment in most cases does not begin to produce benefits in service improvements or revenue for several years. To enable new improvement schemes to be undertaken in good time it is essential that the necessary capital be made available and that there should be an assurance of its future availability to meet the heavy costs to be incurred over a number of years. The £175 million provided for in the Telephone Capital Act, 1973, enabled hundreds of new schemes to put in hand. Since March, 1973, about £135 million has been invested in the system compared with about £45 million in the corresponding period previously. That is in ordinary terms without making allowance for inflation. If one makes allowance for inflation, it is £105 million in this period since this Government came into office, compared with £56 million in the previous corresponding period at 1973-74 prices. Much of this investment has gone into schemes which are still in progress.
The £175 million authorised to be spent under the 1973 Act will be exhausted in the course of the coming year and a new Telephone Capital Bill will be required. This Bill which will obviously have to provide for some hundreds of millions of pounds will give the House an opportunity for a full discussion of plans for improvement of the telephone service.
(Dublin Central): The Minister has given a long list of figures and projections but I should like to know how soon he expects to have all these exchanges functioning. It is no good telling us plans are in hand. Has the Minister seen the report of the Confederation of Irish Industry which blamed the telephone service for many problems which industry is facing? Will the Minister tell the House when he expects those projects to be completed?
There was a great deal of material in my reply. The Deputy's question seemed to call for it because he asked for an extended statement regarding plans for the development of the telephone service and I gave him a fairly detailed, considered statement. I appreciate there was quite a lot to take in all at once but if he studies it he can see that in a number of cases I gave precise dates as, for instance, next week. Wherever it was possible to give reasonably precise dates I did so. I listed a number of projects for next year.
The Deputy may take it in relation to the other projects beyond next year that the Department will endeavour to bring these home as quickly as possible but, of course, it is not possible to pinpoint those more distant so easily. I think any fairminded person who looks at the record will see there is a speeded up pace of development in the telephone service and we hope to maintain that. I must point out, as the Deputy insists on this point and is concerned about what he regards as the slowness of development, the development of the service depends on the rate of investment. In 1971-72 investment was running at £11.4 million and in 1975 it was running at £44.6 million so, whatever fault Deputies opposite may find with this Government, I think they cannot put all the blame on them for failure to develop the telephone service in which we have invested at a far greater rate than they did. We found a very bad telephone service indeed and I believe we will leave it in much better shape than we found it.
Seeing that the CII survey is a very recent one is the Minister saying that the confederation have no legitimate cause for complaint with the telephone service?
Certainly not and I have never made that absurd claim. It would be an absurd claim. Of course, the CII were absolutely right to put an emphasis on the drawbacks and shortcomings of the telephone service. I think they recognise, and I talked to some of them at the opening of Crown Alley, that a serious effort is now being put in to catch up in this area. They made a number of general complaints. They called for an extension of automatic telephone exchange facilities throughout the country. Quite clearly that is a project which is going ahead and going ahead much faster than previously. There have been a number of improvements in trunk dialling facilities in and out of Dublin. In my statement I have detailed the things that are being done there and the things that have been done recently have in fact happened since the publication of the CII report which, I think, would not have been couched in exactly the same terms if it had come after instead of before the opening of the major new installations, particularly at Crown Alley and Cork.
That does not help very much in the country.
That shows how very little thought the Deputy has given to the telephone service.
Would the Minister agree he got a question from me about the telephone in Bailieborough some time ago and that people are still in serious trouble there? That was a long time ago.
We have dwelt on this question for a considerable time now.
Deputies ought to be aware and ought to realise that so much of the communications of this country pass through Dublin that bad telephone service in Dublin damages everyone throughout the country, including Bailieborough, and improvements in Dublin can have a very major improvement on the telephone service throughout the country.
Do not concentrate on Dublin.
The CII also call for the opening up of subscriber dialling facilities to other countries, particularly the United Kingdom, and I have detailed what we are doing there. Action to relieve congestion is being taken. They also listed a number of specific problems and my Department are in touch with them. Deputies may take it now that my Department are not in any way treating lightly informed criticisms of the telephone service. We are anxious to develop it and turn it into a thoroughly modern system and we believe we are now under way towards that goal because of the massive investment.
(Dublin Central): I am not concerned with what happened four or five years ago but it has been established that we have the worst telephone system within the EEC and this will certainly be an impediment to our economic expansion. The improvements that have taken place over the past week or so were, as I have already said, started under Fianna Fáil.
A question, Deputy, please.
(Dublin Central): It will be necessary to have a comprehensive scheme to bring our system into line with the other EEC countries.
If the Deputy is anxious to be fair, and I am sure he is, he will realise from what I have said that a comprehensive scheme is there, is under way and being fulfilled. As regards the worst telephone service in the EEC, that we had in 1973 and I am anxious that we move out of that league and I believe we are now moving out of it.
(Dublin Central): Would the Minister——
We have been on this question for the last quarter of an hour. I am calling question No. 18.
(Dublin Central): Will the Minister give an indication of the ratio of telephones here as against the ratio in Germany?
That is a separate question. If the Deputy puts down a question on that I will give him the information.
18.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when the exchange at Carnew, County Wicklow, will be converted to automatic working.
19.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when the exchange at Shillelagh, County Wicklow, will be converted to automatic working.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 18 and 19 together. It is hoped to convert Carnew and Shillelagh exchanges to automatic working about mid-1978.
Would the Minister agree that it was anticipated the exchanges would be converted by the autumn of 1977?
There is a little bit of slippage. New exchange buildings have been provided at Carnew and Shillelagh. The automatic exchange equipment has been ordered for both places. Their conversion to automatic working is dependent on the power extension of the automatic trunk exchange at Gorey for which equipment has also been orderd. The forecast now given for conversion at Carnew and Shillelagh is about mid-1978 and that is related to the time required by the contractor to manufacture and install the equipment at the exchanges in question and at Gorey.
The Minister will agree that on 6th February, 1975, he hoped to have these exchanges converted in about two-and-a-half years which would have brought the time up to the autumn of 1977. Regrettably that hope has been extinguished. Can the Minister give any guarantee now that they will be converted in 1978?
I would not say hope was "extinguished". It was deferred. The Deputy must be aware that in projects of this kind there are invariably delays. Anyone who has occasion to have a house built knows that it is not always built just as fast as one would like. I believe the conversion will be completed by mid-1978, yes.
I think the Minister will agree this is the third time I have put this question for the purpose of keeping the matter current and regrettably finality has not yet been reached.