Sinn Féin: Phone line move hits Pensioner

limerick | rights, freedoms and repression | other press Friday February 15, 2008 19:22 by Cael

Sinn Féin Poblachtach

An elderly pensioner who has to move a few hundred yards to new accommodation provided by Limerick City Council is being charged 190 euro to relocate his telephone,a spokesman for Republican Sinn Fein said today

Saw this on the IRBB website:

PHONE LINE MOVE HITS PENSIONERS

An elderly pensioner who has to move a few hundred yards to new accommodation provided by Limerick City Council is being charged 190 euro to relocate his telephone,a spokesman for Republican Sinn Fein said today.

Joe Lynch from Ballinacurra Weston in Limerick said the man aged 76 years is being moved to better housing by the Council but the ESB is insisting on charging him to move the telephone line. While the pensioner welcomes the upgraded accommodation the man is worried about being able to afford the cost of moving the telephone line, he said. The pensioner is living on just around 200 euro a week so charging him 190 euro to move his telephone line will impose considerable financial hardship on him.

The irony is that his new accommodation is only a two minute walk away in the Janesboro area of Limerick.Surely the pensioner’s low income must be taken into account when it comes to a situation like this where his accommodation is being upgraded by the City Council. It seems heartless of the ESB to demand the full 190 euro fee for the service of transferring a telephone line.

Surely his financial status must be taken into consideration. For many elderly pensioners a telephone is a social Necessity and vital to their communication and well-being. I am asking the Limerick City Council and the ESB to meet in an effort to resolve the situation and arrive at an outcome acceptable to the pensioner.