asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the reason for the delay in settling the dispute regarding the telephone account of a person (details supplied) in Dublin and if he will expedite the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Disputed Telephone Account.
30.
The subscriber concerned queried call charges recorded by meter, and accordingly it was considered desirable to obtain an engineering report on the exchange equipment associated with the subscriber's telephone in case there was any fault there which could have led to over recording. It is expected that that report will be available shortly in my Department and we will then get in touch with the subscriber concerned. In the meantime service is, of course, being provided.
I may add that a very substantial number of inquiries are received from subscribers following the issue of the quarterly accounts and it is not possible to dispose of them as quickly as might be desired. In the quarter in question some 72,000 queries were received of which some 15,000 referred to disputed meter call charges. As my department examine them carefully, a very considerable expenditure of time and effort is involved.
In view of the fact that an enormous amount of time is spent in examining a regularly occuring number of disputed calls—15,000 in the case mentioned by the Minister—at a considerable expenditure of time and effort, would he consider it useful to introduce systematically a system of meters so that people could see the increasing number of calls as it develops? This would be analogous to what happens with gas and electricity meters, and the Minister would not have to go through his quarterly exercise of investigation.
I understand what the Deputy means in the request but it is not possible to do it because we are on a different system from the ESB. The telephones are metered in the exchange and it is there that we check.
I am talking about a meter installed in the home alongside the phone which would show that the calls are increasing at a certain rate. This would mean that the Minister would not have to spend time and resources investigating the many complaints.
That would be a change in the protocol that we have used. We will investigate it. I see the Deputy's point, but whether it is possible to do what he suggests is another question.
Will the Minister have a look at it?
I will look at every aspect of it.