Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply and wish him well in his new role. It is great that, as he has said, landlines are cheaper in more restricted rural areas. Unfortunately, it is not possible for many of the elderly people I deal with, who are based in Dublin, to use a mobile telephone, never mind having one. Unfortunately, mobile telephones do not allow for the pendants used by many senior citizens to be monitored. I will examine the Minister's reply in detail. I did not have much time to do so because I did not receive it until the Minister was halfway through reading it. I will have to read over it. I encourage the Minister to connect with Eircom and other service providers and ask them to advertise the TalkTime package and similar offers. Some of the problem might relate to how well it is publicised. It is sometimes difficult to explain new deals to older people, in particular. Perhaps Eircom might consider putting together some kind of information leaflet on which the details of the TalkTime package would be clearly outlined. This would allow older people to understand the process up taking up a deal that is based on limited-hours usage. I hope it would also give them a chance to keep their landlines, which are vital services for many elderly people who are reluctant to use mobile phones. The process of putting money on a phone has become very difficult for them.

I thank the Minister for his answer, which I need to study. Perhaps I will come back to this issue in the future. I wish the Minister all the best in his new role. I thank him for being so helpful to me on many occasions in his past role when I was dealing with community issues.

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