asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the plans he has to provide a telephone kiosk at the junction of John Paul Avenue and Ard na Gréine in Cavan town.
Written Answers. - Telephone Service.
376.
The provision of an additional telephone kiosk in Cavan town to serve the John Paul Avenue/Ard na Gréine area is not regarded as warranted at present and it is not proposed therefore to provide one there.
377.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the checking procedures which are exercised before a telephone is disconnected for arrears on a telephone account; and if he will comment on the fact that cases have occurred where telephones have been disconnected in error by his Department on grounds of failure to pay on time.
Telephone subscribers are asked to pay their telephone account within three weeks of receipt of the account. If payment is not received before the due date, a final notice is issued giving due warning that if the Bill is not paid within a further seven days, service will be disconnected.
I am advised that there is no case on record in my Department in which service was disconnected for non-payment of the account within the periods mentioned.
In cases in which payment has not been received within these periods, arrangements to have service disconnected are put in train. It is not always practicable to cancel these where a late payment is made because of the large volume of cases involved but instructions to disconnect are checked against a computer print-out of payments received and against payments on hands which have not yet been fed into the computer to avoid disconnection where practicable in such cases.
378.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when the Kilmoganny exchange area, County Kilkenny will become automatic.
About the middle of next year.
379.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will investigate the July-September and October-December 1983 telephone accounts forwarded to a person (details supplied) in Cork, as the amount of units charged in those accounts is greatly in excess of those stated to have been used by him.
This subscriber's telephone accounts have been investigated and were found to be correct. There was no fault on the line that could have caused over-metering.
380.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when and where it is proposed to provide a telephone kiosk in the Albert Road area, near the Hibernian Building, Cork.
It is proposed to erect a public telephone kiosk to serve the Albert Road-Victoria Road area outside Ranks (Ireland) Limited, on Victoria Road. It is expected that it will be provided during 1984.
381.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the reason telephone rental is being charged twice to a person (details supplied) in County Wexford.
This subscriber is not being charged twice for rental. The amount of rental he paid in advance is now exhausted and a charge for rental was correctly included in his recent account.
382.
asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he is aware that on 7 September 1983 at 11.50 hours the marine rescue in Shannon tried to telephone the honorary secretary of Rosslare Harbour lifeboat station to ask the lifeboat to stand by to be ready to launch in search of the light aircraft missing between Birmingham and Kilkenny, as the aircraft had reported its last position ten miles from the Irish coast, but were unable to make contact for a period of 32 minutes even though all stations in Rosslare were fully manned, and that during the ensuing search further difficulties were experienced; if he will not ensure that improvements are carried out immediately; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Difficulties in contacting Rosslare Harbour including the lifeboat secretary on 7 September 1983 were due to intermittent failure of Waterford-Wexford trunk route over which Wexford-Shannon traffic is routed.
When the difficulty arose, technical staff were called out at Waterford and Wexford, and operators at Waterford checked with the Garda at Wexford and were able to put through all calls requested of them during the day. They also continued to check emergency numbers in Wexford and Rosslare in case they had difficulty getting Waterford.
Service in the south-east has been improved following the bringing into service of a new digital exchange in Wexford last October. Further improvements should follow the provision of a digital trunk exchange at Waterford in the first quarter of 1984.
Regular maintenance of the existing link is undertaken to ensure the best possible standard of service.