I regret very much that once again—this matter has been raised on several occasions in recent months—this party's spokesman on transport and communications has been compelled to avail of the facilities of this House to draw the attention of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs to the continuing serious situation in the telecommunications sector of his Department. I sought permission to raise this matter because of a number of very serious problems which have arisen over the past few days despite the fact that we have just suffered a prolonged telecommunications dispute extending over several months, the longest in the history of the Post Office. Despite the fact that that dispute terminated some few weeks ago, the situation as late as this week and as late as yesterday is worse in some cases than it was during the recent prolonged dispute.
It was reasonable to expect that, in the weeks since the termination of the dispute, positive, determined action would have been taken to restore to normality the services which were put out of order or disrupted during the strike. One would have expected that the Minister would have urged his Department to pull out all the stops, to get the maximum number of technicians working the maximum amount of overtime possible to restore the services. What do we find?
I want to draw the attention of the Minister to two very serious matters which have been brought to my attention in the past 24 hours about which the Minister is aware perhaps. I want to refer to the situation in Cork city and the situation in Aer Lingus. In the past 24 hours I received numerous telephone calls, but I will not give the gist of them. I want to describe the situation in Cork as it is described in The Cork Examiner today:
After one of the most frustrating days in the history of the telecommunications service there were mounting fears last night of a mass walk-out at the Cork telephone exchange where operators claim that they have been bearing the brunt of abuse from frustrated subscribers for a situation which is entirely outside their control.
Subscribers in Cork found it virtually impossible to make trunk calls yesterday and there were instances where it took hours to get through to local numbers.
Lines to Dublin, in particular, became over-loaded and operators could not be contacted due to faults at the exchange.
At 1.30 p.m. 300 subscribers had calls booked to Dublin and there was a delay of up to two hours.
I went to the trouble today to check out some of this. The situation in Cork is very bad. Equipment is faulty in the exchange and, apparently, necessary repairs have not been carried out. What disturbed me most of all, and what led me to raise this matter on the Adjournment, is that I understand—and I want the Minister to clarify this; as I already said one would expect that all the stops would have been pulled out to restore services to normal as quickly as possible; that there would be unlimited overtime, and so on—there was no overtime the first week after the dispute, there was limited overtime the second week and, in the current week, there is still limited overtime. Whereas normally workers could work as many hours as they felt they were able to, a limit has now been imposed on the amount of overtime technicians and engineers can work. If this is a fact, it is appalling.
I do not have to describe the frustration, the delays, the failure, and so on, of the telephone service in Cork. I quote again from The Cork Examiner:
Equipment at the exchange is in a bad state of repair. The telephonists' boards are defective and lines in are not lighting at all.
It goes on to describe the various problems. I also have reports from the west, the north-west, and various other parts of the country. I am particularly concerned about the computer bureau at Furbo in Connemara which was set up during my period as Minister for the Gaeltacht with a substantial State investment. Prior to my departure from office I approved a merger with a similar type computer operation in Shannon. We now have one of the most modern, most advanced and most sophisticated computer operations outside of Dublin with the marriage of the Galway and the Shannon computers. Modern computer services are heavily dependent on Post Office lines for the transmission of data and so on. The computer operation at Furbo, in which I have deep personal interest, was gravely handicapped, obviously, during the strike, and is still having problems.
In addition to being Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the Minister is also Minister for Tourism and Transport. I was appalled and shocked—I could hardly believe it—when I was informed last evening of the situation Aer Lingus had to contend with over the past three days in Dublin Airport and in all their offices. Due to a fault in the main cable linking the airport, they were compelled for the past three days to operate their computer reservation system, their telephone system and their entire telecommunications system on one-third of their normal link capacity. I saw a statement in another paper, which I have not been able to confirm, that only one of the eight lines linking the airport was in operation. It was stated by a spokesman for Aer Lingus that only one-third of their links are in operation.
The Minister has responsibility for tourism and transport and also for Aer Lingus. It is bad enough to have this breakdown but, up to last night, no effort had been made to repair the fault in a vital area in a vital service. We are now into the tourist season. We must also bear in mind that recently there was a fairly prolonged industrial dispute in Aer Lingus which caused obvious problems for the airline. I want the Minister to inform us what has been happening since the resumption of work. Has there been a restriction on overtime? What is the reason for the delay in rectifying the fault? I understand 10,000 or 12,000 telephones are out of order and I do not expect every telephone to be operational in a couple of weeks after a prolonged strike.
As I said, we have this appalling situation in Cork city, our second city, and the appalling situation in Aer Lingus where they have a reservation service linking their offices all over the world. They are vitally dependent on this telecommunications link for their business. I cannot understand why this has been allowed to go on for three days with no effort made to repair the fault.
There is another very serious dimension in relation to Aer Lingus. In addition to providing their own computer reservation system linked with their offices abroad and with tour operators and travel agencies at home and abroad, Aer Lingus also have very valuable contracts with overseas airlines. These contracts are very good revenue earners for our national airline. Aer Lingus are providing computer reservation facilities for at least two airlines of which I am aware. There may be more. What will those airlines think—having suffered through the telecommunications dispute for months —of this situation at Dublin Airport when we are almost at the peak of the tourist season?
I understand some industrial action has been taken in the international telephone exchange in Dublin in the past few days. I have not got the details. As well as emphasising the points which have been brought to my notice—I feel I should do so, and this is the place to do it and have them discussed openly—I am gravely concerned about the overall situation and about certain signs, symptoms and indications which have been emerging over the past week of the possibility of another serious breakdown or another serious industrial relations dispute affecting the telecommunications service. This evening week I questioned the Minister about the Government's intention regarding the setting up of an independent telecommunications service and this matter was adverted to by the Taoiseach when addressing the Chamber of Commerce in Dublin the previous day. The Minister did not give me any information but told me that the matter was being looked into.
In the final analysis the Minister must take the major share of the blame for the prolonging of the telecommunications dispute and for the worsening situation that has emerged in the last few days. The Minister and his Minister of State must pull out all the stops to settle this matter to ensure the restoration of normal services as quickly as possible. Where an emergency arises, such as that which occurred yesterday in Cork, there should be a task force available to carry out the necessary repairs. The restoration of normal service is the immediate problem and, consequently, I ask the Minister to indicate whether he made any progress in recent weeks or reached any decision with a view to implementing a new industrial relations structure in the Department.