asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the total cost of repairs to telephone kiosks in Dublin city and county in 1981-82.

: The records of the Department are kept on a calendar year basis and are on a district and not a county basis. The cost of maintenance of telephone kiosks in 1981 in the Dublin engineering district, which includes parts of Meath, Kildare and Wicklow as well as Dublin, was £400,000 approximately. The final figure for 1982 is not yet available but is expected to be something of the same order as for 1981.

: Can the Minister say if it is the policy of the Department to continue to repair telephone kiosks? There are quite a number of them out of order in some areas and one cannot help feeling that it must no longer be the practice of the Department to repair them.

: It is the practice of the Department to repair them as soon as they can get round to doing so. But it would be fair to say that they are being put out of commission so fast it is becoming a big task for the Department to keep them repaired.

: Can the Minister give the House an indication of the total number of telephone kiosks involved, if possible?

: There are approximately 930 public telephones in the Dublin engineering district — and I have already outlined for the House the size of the district. The majority of these are street kiosks and others are situated in post offices, shopping centres, railway stations and at Dublin Airport.

34.