The notification of Eircom that it intends to remove 13 phone boxes in the Ballina area sparked anger among the majority of the members of Ballina electoral area committee this week. The boxes will be removed from areas in Crossmolina, Ballycastle, Ballina town, Killala, and Bonniconlon. Fine Gael Cllr Michelle Mulherin told the meeting: “I’m completely opposed to the removal of the phone kiosks. This is a retrograde step by Eircom, there are people who don’t have mobile phones and use them, what good is there putting a sign on a phone box in Bonniconlon, Killala, or Crossmolina telling them this one is going and the nearest one to them is in Ballina town?”
Fianna Fáil Cllr Annie May Reape was agreed with her colleague calling it “a backward step, I appeal to Eircom to leave them alone and concentrate their efforts on removing the poles that are in front of houses all over the county”.
While speaking out against the removal of the phone boxes Killala based Cllr Jarlath Munnelly was also pragmatic in his appraisal of the situation. “I understand that Eircom is looking at this like a business, there are three boxes in Killala down to be removed, I could live with one or two of them being removed as long as at least one phone kiosk is left working in the village.”
Fianna Fáil Cllr Johnny O’Malley spoke on the reasons why Eircom is starting to remove the boxes. “The issue here is that all the kiosks are required by Comreg to have a turnover of €1,300 per annumn to make them economically viable, but having looked into it some of the boxes on this list are only taking in €2 or €3 per month, meaning that there are only four or five calls being made on them. It also costs €200 per visit to maintain each kiosk.”
