Sir, – I wish to clarify an important point regarding the cost of calls to helplines (Brendan Chapman, September 11th).
Calls to Samaritans’ 24-hour helpline – 1850 60 90 90 – are not charged at commercial rates: they are subsidised by Eircom and are charged at 6 cent from a landline and 33 cent from a mobile. These charges apply, irrespective of the length of the call. Samaritans also provides a call-back service.
We are delighted that, from mid-2013, Samaritans’ number will change to a new European short code number. This number will be entirely free to the caller, and the costs will be covered by the six largest telecom operators in Ireland: BT Ireland, Eircom/ Meteor, 02, Three, Vodafone and UPC.
We welcome this significant commitment from the commercial telecom providers for the work of Samaritans. The short-code, free-call number will be an important improvement to services for anyone struggling to cope. – Yours, etc,