More than 4,000 people who applied for shares in Telecom Eireann made mistakes in their application and, instead of receiving a share certificate or nominee account statement, have missed out completely on the flotation.

In a small amount of cases, people applying for shares who filled out their forms correctly have either been under or over-allocated the amount of shares to which they were entitled. A spokeswoman for the Government said people who received less than the allocation they were entitled to would receive their full entitlement and, if needed, the Government would enter the open market to buy shares to cover discrepancies.

However, the small number of discrepancies - there have only been 25-30 valid cases of under or over-allocation so far from callers to the helpline - will probably balance out with returns of over-allocated shares covering those who received less than their entitlement.

Callers to the helpline, set up to deal with queries or mistakes, have complained of delays of more than 20 minutes, but the spokeswoman said that 10 new operators were hired yesterday to help deal with demand. The number of calls to the helpline has not increased but people who are calling are staying on for 20 to 25 minutes and that is causing the delays.

Anybody who finds themselves with more or less than their allocation should ring the helpline listed on the certificate or statement. They will be transferred to a special section specifically dealing with these cases. A review group has been set up to deal with problems with the flotation and it is investigating and rectifying problems within seven days.

Unfortunately those who have made mistakes themselves in their final applications are not entitled to a share allocation and will be receiving an explanation of the reason for this and a copy of their original form with the mistake highlighted.

People receiving such a statement should check that they did in fact make a genuine mistake in their application because those who find they have been wrongly excluded will be immediately readmitted and allocated shares.

In the run-up to the deadline for applications, the helpline returned forms or rang around 5,000 people, who had provided a contact number, to rectify mistakes on their forms. Shareholders should also have received a cheque accompanying their certificate refunding them for the surplus shares they were not awarded under the allocation procedure. The many people who choose the direct debit option should now have been fully reimbursed to their account.

The helpline number is 1 800 715111.