Would the Minister be prepared to give special consideration to Clonmel and perhaps start a retraining programme for some of the staff at that exchange who may become redundant? We all know that redundancy money is soul-destroying. Would the Minister be prepared to make every effort to ensure that when there is the change to the new automatic exchange at Waterford, the personnel at Clonmel can be absorbed into some other type of Posts and Telegraphs employment?

I appreciate the Deputy's special interest in Clonmel but I cannot take that exchange as a special case. I might add that were it not for the fact of my not being able to travel today I would be in Bantry talking about this sort of problem.

What about the promise that was made?

We are talking about a very human problem, about people losing their jobs.

The Taoiseach seemed to have appreciated that before the election.

One would expect the former Minister for Labour to show more sympathy instead of merely making snide remarks.

There is no point in talking about sympathy. The Government have been elected and should get on with the task of dealing with the problem.

The Deputy who asked the supplementary is entitled to a reply. As I have said, I cannot contemplate giving special treatment to Clonmel but I can assure Deputy Acheson that if the local unions involved will agree to telephonists being given duties other than those for which they are trained now, there will be a willingness on the part of the Department to accommodate them. We would be very generous in that respect.