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.