§ 89. Captain Orrasked the Postmaster-General to give an estimate of the value of damage done to telephone and telegraph installations in Northern Ireland as a result of the recent winter storms; and whether he intends to make an extra capital allocation to the region to compensate for this.
§ Mr. K. ThompsonThe storm which occurred on 25th-26th December cut off 9,000 subscribers and 68 telephone exchanges. These services were restored within about three weeks at a cost of £60,000 and permanent repairs will cost a further £60,000. A further storm on 4th February cut off 2,500 subscribers and 36 exchanges. Most of these have already been reconnected and the total cost is likely to be about £15,000. The cost of repairing storm damage is not itself chargeable to capital, but account is taken of the leeway in normal work when making capital allocations.