Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise an issue of grave concern in my part of the country, which is the quality of service, or lack thereof, by Eir to its customers. What is arising at the moment is that landlines, particularly to senior citizens, are breaking down and there is no chance of getting them fixed for weeks. We must always remember that with regard to those landlines, there is a security aspect whereby many of them are linked up to alarms. If there is bad mobile coverage, those security alarms do not work and, therefore, householders need a landline.

I ask the Deputy Leader to help me in this regard. Would it be in order that we could write to Eir? I acknowledge it is no longer a semi-State body and that we can no longer invite its representatives in here. We could invite them to appear before a committee, however. It really is a matter of grave concern to people. Quite a number of people have contacted me. I must say, when the Eir staff eventually come out, they are courteous and helpful and do a good job. However, it is simply not good enough that people can sometimes be waiting for eight, ten or 12 weeks, particularly when the alarm is so important to them. I am hopeful that we would be able to get to Eir and that it would improve the service in our area. Some of the staff tell me the issue is just lack of staff. The staff who are there are trying to cover a huge area and they simply cannot do it. In some cases, even on Saturday mornings, some staff actually go beyond their duty of care and what they are responsible for to try to look after people who have been waiting for a long time to get their telephone lines repaired. The service is just appalling at the moment and Eir has to do better. Maybe the Leader could write to them.