asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when telephones will be installed in the small industries in Limerick (details supplied) and why these industries were waiting so long for these facilities at great expense to the companies.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Telephone Service.
20.
(Dublin South-Central): Six of the nine applicants have been given service. It is expected that service will be provided early next year for the remaining three applicants.
The delay in providing service for these three, who applied within the last six months, is due to the volume of urgent engineering work on hands in Limerick City and the many earlier applicants that have to be attended to first.
Is the Minister aware that there are small family industries without any State subvention and, even though there is great potential for the business, because of lack of service facilities these people find themselves going out of business? It is not fair for the Minister to state that next year they will have telephones. Of course they should get priority and should be given telephones immediately. I do not accept the excuse he has offered for not installing them.
Question No. 21.
One industry had a telephone and wanted only an extension. It took six months to instal that extension. There is something seriously wrong with the Minister's information regarding the installation of telephones. I am not accepting the Minister's excuse.
(Dublin South-Central): My Department give priority to any industry where there is potential employment. The applications from the people whom the Deputy speaks of here were submitted in mid-October 1978. We have to take a broad view from an industrial standpoint of the applicants in Limerick who require telephones and to look at the number of people employed. There are firms in Limerick with more people employed than some of the companies mentioned by the Deputy. That does not take away from the fact that we take a serious view of the concept of providing telephones as soon as possible.
Where is their opportunity to expand their business when they cannot promote them because of lack of telephone facilities? I tell the Minister that the potential is very good from the point of view of the industries I have referred to but, they have no chance of promoting their businesses because they have no telephone facilities.
I am calling Question No. 21.
I know a man who has a business in Cork and he is an outstanding success and yet, because of lack of telephone facilities, he knows that he is not getting the full potential from his business. What is important is that he can give more employment. That is what it is all about.
(Dublin South-Central): We have to take into consideration the number of people employed in each of these industries. The Deputy is as well aware as I am of the number of people employed.
The Minister will agree——
Deputy Lipper, we have permitted you a good deal of latitute——
——that they are not getting a fair opportunity because of the lack of amenities in the telephone service.
There are P & T vans going around at the back of——
Deputy Killilea, it is not permitted to be disorderly. Order, please.
(Interruptions).
I am calling Question No. 21.
21.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of applications for (a) business, (b) private telephones in Limerick city and county, and when these applications will be disposed of to the satisfaction of the applicants.
(Dublin South-Central): The numbers are (a) 240 and (b) 1,710. It is expected that about 650 of these, including some 120 business applications, will be met this year, and the remainder progressively during 1980.
Is the Minister saying that 650 of these telephones will be installed this year?
(Dublin South-Central): That is right.
And in 1980?
(Dublin South-Central): And 120 of the 650 will be business telephones. That is not bad for 1979.
The Minister's party are good at promising.
Order.
22.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs why Griffith Court estate, Fairview, Dublin 3, has been designated a secondary area in terms of priority for telephone installations; if he is aware that there are a number of applicants in the medical profession including doctors, nurses and laboratory technicians for whom the installation of a telephone at the earliest opportunity is vital; and if he will expedite these applications without further delay.
(Dublin South-Central): No area is ever designated as a secondary one for telephone purposes. The estate concerned is one of a number in the Dublin area where cabling schemes have to be carried out before service can be provided for waiting applicants. It is expected that the cabling work in this estate will be completed before the end of this year, following which applications for services will be met without delay.
Will the Minister say whether it is possible to give some recognition of the need for priority to people mentioned in the question such as members of the medical profession, doctors, nurses and also people involved in important community work? Is it possible to do anything as a temporary measure to facilitate those people? The Minister is saying that it is hoped that cabling work will be completed by the end of the year.
(Dublin South-Central): That is right.
So we cannot promise them a phone in the immediate future?
(Dublin South-Central): No. There is one application in that scheme from a surgeon who is residing in it. There is no other application in hand from persons employed in the medical or related professions.
I do not want to delay on this question, but what is the prospect of people getting priority in the event of applications either in the Department already or coming in? Is the Minister aware that the reason there are not more applications in his Department in the categories mentioned is that his Department refuse to hand out application forms at present because nobody is able to process them? It would be unrealistic and wrong for the Minister to say there is a lack of——
That is argument.
What are the prospects of some sort of priority for people urgently needing telephones in this area?
(Dublin South-Central): I have pointed out to the Deputy that there is one application from a surgeon on call. He is the only applicant in my Department who is in any way related to the medical profession who requires the services.
What kind of priority would people in that category get?
(Dublin South-Central): He is the only applicant at the moment. One was given a telephone some time ago. He is the only applicant now. Surgeons and doctors always receive priority.
How many people are on priority at the moment?
(Dublin South-Central): One.
How many are there in general?
(Dublin South-Central): I do not know. The Deputy did not ask me anything about that. He is talking about the medical profession here.
Are there 60,000 applications in the Department on some sort of priority?