asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will facilitate the general public, in view of the substantial increase in telephone charges, by replacing the penny slot on public telephone boxes immediately.

Arrangements are being made to replace coinbox mechanisms in automatic public coinbox telephones with new mechanisms catering for 2p, 5p and 10p coins. It is hoped to commence introducing the new coinboxes within the next three to four months.

In view of the fact that local calls now cost 5p does the Minister not feel he is not facilitating the general public? Unless they have a 5p piece going into a telephone booth they will be charged 6p for a local telephone call which will increase telephone charges by another 25 per cent on top of his present increase of 25 per cent, which makes a total increase of 45 per cent?

I do not agree with the Deputy's interpretation which is altogether unfounded.

Would the Minister not agree to facilitate the general public by opening the 1p slots in the public telephone booths?

The new telephone charges will apply to operator-controlled trunk calls from coin box telephones from 1st April next. It will not be possible to introduce the 5p local calls from automatic coinboxes as the automatic coinbox mechanism has to be modified using components which have to be specially manufactured. It will be about eight months before the necessary components will be available from the manufacturers. Modifications of coinboxes will be carried out by the engineering branch staff and will take about three months from the time components become available. It is not proposed to introduce a 5p local call fee for manual coinboxes until the automatic coinboxes are modified. The new automatic coinboxes with a 10p slot will also have to be modified for 5p local call dialling as they are designed for 4p local call working. This is a small job. Any not actually installed at the time the 5p components became available will be modified before they are installed in kiosks.

Can the Minister say what the total cost will be?

The total cost of what?

Of the modification of the telephones?

If the Deputy cares to put down a question about that I will answer it.