Brennan orders review of phone allowance after Eircom increases

The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr Brennan, said he would review the free telephone allowance yesterday after it emerged that the current grant does not cover the full cost of line rental for users.

The Minister has ordered a report on the scheme following claims by one disabled user that Eircom had threatened to disconnect his telephone if he didn't pay the additional 94 cents to cover his line-rental charges.

Eircom said last night it had no record of the customer in question and it did not have a policy to cut off users of the free telephone allowance who did not pay the extra line rental charges.

Under the free telephone allowance, Eircom is charging 296,832 people 94 cents more for line rental than they receive in State grants every two months. The extra charges were introduced in April, when the Government decided not to match an Eircom increase in line rental charges.

In response to questions yesterday, Mr Brennan said there was a long-standing principle by which the State pays for line rental and some other charges for old age pensioners' phones. "The Government stands by this commitment," Mr Brennan said in a statement to The Irish Times.

Meeting the full cost of line rental for allowance members would cost an extra €1.78 million per year to the Government.

The cost of the Government's telephone allowance scheme has increased from €72.5 million in 2001 to €92.2 million in 2004, largely as a result of increases in line-rental charges by Eircom.

Over the past two months, Eircom's competitors have started to introduce line-rental services for consumers. But these rivals charge the same €24.18 fee.

The Department of Social Welfare said that it did not know of any scheme members that had been threatened with being cut off by Eircom or any other firm.

However, Mr Paddy McLean of Ballybofey, Co Donegal, claims Eircom threatened to cut off his phone unless he paid 94 cents extra every two months.

This was denied by Eircom.

"We do not cut people off for not paying 94 cents of a bill . . . of course sometimes we have to exercise credit control on a case-by-case basis," said a spokesman.