A WOMAN in her 70s from the Bantry area was left without a landline for seven and a half weeks after it was damaged due to lightning.

The delay by Eir in repairing her phone line was highlighted at last week’s meeting of the local authority by West Cork Cllr Finbarr Harrington.

He told the meeting that to makes matters worse the woman then had to drive a distance to use her mobile phone because there is no mobile phone coverage in the location of her house.

‘While it is an inconvenience for many, it’s much more serious for the elderly,’ said Cllr Harrington.

‘In very rural areas across West Cork and in our island communities a reliable landline is not a luxury but a necessity as mobile phone coverage isn’t great in a lot of these places.’

He called for the council to write to both the Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan and ComReg (Commission for Communications Regulation) regarding the prolonged delays experienced by residents in getting their phone services repaired when faults occur.

He said that after the recent bad weather some phone landlines services across the Beara and Mizen Head peninsulas have been out of service, in some cases for at least six weeks.

Cllr Harrington pointed out that for many of the elderly population the landline is the ‘lifeline’.

‘It’s how they speak to their family members, contact their neighbours, make appointments and ring for help in the event of an emergency. When the landline goes down for a long period they are then left very isolated and vulnerable in their homes.’

He said the ability to contact emergency services can be a matter of life and death for some elderly people.

‘This can’t be accepted when we look at EIR’s massive profits and Comreg has a responsibility that telephone providers repair phonelines in a timely manner and it’s not acceptable to have them out for weeks. Strict maximum repair times and fines should be enforced.’

Cllr Frank O’Flynn (FF) queried if Eir is getting rid of landlines by stealth as he has heard of similar issues in his area in North Cork.

His colleague Cllr Joe Carroll said the lack of a landline in a house is a frightening situation for any elderly person and said the length of repair time by Eir has to be looked at.

‘It’s like 40 years ago when people had to go to their local TD to get a phoneline and they’re nearly waiting longer now to get it repaired. Contacting Eir is difficult too.’

Cllr Danny Collins (Ind Ire) said he has given up ringing Eir and now goes and rings the man on the ground who helps him with his queries.

A spokesperson for EIR later told The Southern Star that the provider is not experiencing any backlogs or widespread outages in the Bantry area and would need more information on the customer affected before they could investigate the issue further.