asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will have a public telephone kiosk erected in the Barlin Valley, Kealkil, Bantry, County Cork.

Kiosks are not provided in areas such as Barlin Valley, Kealkil, where there is no post office.

If Cork County Council would act as guarantors, would the Minister accept them under the general scheme?

That is quite a diffent matter.

I do not think the council have gone into it.

Perhaps the council would inform us of that and we could then see what the position would be.

Do I take it from the Minister's reply that Cork County County would agree to guarantee against any loss? I do not think the Minister should accept this sort of scheme whereby the Department of Posts and Telegraphs will pass on their responsibility to the local authorities to erect telephones where it is not profitable for the Department to do so.

17.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if his Department will provide a public telephone kiosk at Bridesbridge, Castlelyons, County Cork.

Kiosks are not provided in areas such as Bridesbridge, Castlelyons, where there is no post office.

Do I understand that there must be a post office there before a kiosk is provided?

In rural areas, yes.

Surely it is where there is no post office that the kiosk is required?

The Deputy will probably be aware of the policy in relation to this, which is that the kiosk would be expected to pay for itself. The only area where that is likely to happen is where there is a post office. As a rule, because post offices close at a certain time in the evening, applications are made to have a kiosk erected outside the post office so that there will be a 24-hour service. These applications have been granted in most cases.

That means the Black Valley can throw their hats at getting a telephone.

Will the Minister state if it is part of the Department's policy to erect telephone kiosks only where it is profitable to do so?

That is the policy.

In other words, the Department will not erect telephone kiosks if they think they will lose money?

I am extremely interested to hear that after a couple of months of this Government in office Deputies on the opposite side begin to raise these matters when they could have raised them with their own Minister a few months ago.

Is it not a fact that Fianna Fáil left the country with the worst telephone system in the world?

I am amazed at the anxiety expressed by so many Deputies whose Government did nothing in relation to this matter.

(Cavan-Monaghan): Is the Minister aware that there was as much spent on the telephone system during the Coalition period in the last four-and-a-half years as in the previous 17 years?

18.

asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when Black Valley, County Kerry will get a telephone service.

There are four applications on hands for telephone service in or near the Black Valley. Because of the nature of the terrain and the distance from the nearest exchange, the cost of providing service would be very high and it would take a considerable time to complete the heavy construction work involved even though an ESB supply is being provided in the valley. My Department have been examining how best to provide service in the most economic manner possible. When inquiries are completed terms will be quoted to the applicants.

Can the Minister tell me why Deputy Haughey, the Minister for Health and Social Welfare, can get a telephone into the Blasket Islands, 15 miles from Dingle, over-land, to a house where he lives for only three months in the year at a time when the people of the Black Valley have been waiting for 50 years? What kind of priorities has he?

If the Deputy would look at the reports of the debate on the Telephone Capital Bill he will find that Deputies have a top priority in relation to telephone provision.

I cannot understand the priorities of the Government in leaving the people of Black Valley without telephones for so long and giving a telephone to the Minister for Health in a house where he lives for only three months of the year.

I said in my reply that when inquiries have been completed terms will be quoted to the applicants, something that did not happen during the Deputy's term in office.