Vol. 558 No. 5
111 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Social and Family Affairs her plans to apply the free telephone rental allowance for qualifying applicants to bill paying mobile phone users in view of the changing trends in this regard; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24790/02]
The telephone allowance scheme administered by my Department covers land-line and instrument rental and calls to the value of €2.42 in each two-monthly billing period. Some 280,000 customers are benefiting from this scheme currently, at a cost of €72.75 million in 2002. Eircom is the only operator participating in the scheme at present.
I am committed to the extension of coverage under the scheme to meet market demands and customer needs. However, as the allowance is paid by way of direct credit to individual client bills, this will require both the Department and companies interested in participating in the scheme to invest in significant computer systems development in order to share relevant client data.
It is intended that coverage of mobile phone usage will be facilitated within the telephone allowance scheme as part of the next phase of the Department's new service delivery model which has recently been implemented in the child benefit scheme.
My Department is open to expressions of interest from any of the mobile phone companies who want to offer services to telephone allowance clients, and will provide for their inclusion in the context of the further development of the service delivery model development.
