asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs when a telephone service will be provided for a person (details supplied) in Dublin who is a widow living alone.

Cabling work will have to be carried out before service can be provided in this instance and, because of the volume of such work on hands, it will not be possible to attend to this scheme for about a year. Service cannot, I regret, be provided meantime. If it is possible to improve on this, it will of course be done.

The reason I tabled this question for oral answer is because questions for written answer are receiving very stereotyped replies. May I ask the Minister to take compassionate grounds into consideration? The applicant is 80 years old. Her family are living abroad and there is no way of making contact with them except by telephone. Are grounds like these taken into consideration?

Yes. I want to assure Deputy that the official dealing with parliamentary questions in my office was working until 11 p.m. last night. This is one of the files I talked to him about because I share the Deputy's view that elderly people should have telephones if at all possible. I shall have the matter looked at again.

Are the particular aspects I mentioned taken into consideration?

As the Deputy will appreciate, it is the business of the Post Office to provide telephones as fast as they can and in the maximum possible number. Because of cabling and other infrastructure needs that is not always possible. In this case there are difficulties. This application was made in January 1981. This may be a lame excuse but there are people waiting in this city for seven years. I will have instructions given to the engineers to see if there is another way of providing a service.

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