The Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs is in talks with Eircom to end the practice of cutting the lines of elderly people who fail to pay their phone bills.
Eircom has come under pressure to ensure elderly people whose line rental is paid by the State do not have their phones cut off. Meetings are taking place between officials in the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs and Eircom in the light of several such cases.
A spokeswoman for the Minister Mr Ahern said it was an issue about which he was extremely concerned.
"We don't want to see anyone in a vulnerable position completely cut off. The telephone line is a lifeline to many pensioners."
Every year the Department pays the cost of telephone rental for some 200,000 people directly to Eircom. These are customers over 70 years of age, people in receipt of social welfare pensions who are living alone and some people on invalidity benefit. This group - which accounts for 13 per cent of all Eircom customers - is given free rental by the State because the telephone is considered to be an essential service for them.
But what happens when someone in receipt of telephone rental allowance gets into financial difficulty?
In a statement, the telephone company said it operated the same payment policy for all residential customers.
"When a customer's bill is overdue, Eircom endeavours to contact this customer by letter or telephone prior to disconnection. If customers experience payments difficulties, Eircom engages with them and we deal with the matter on a case-by-case basis."
If a customer is unable to pay their bill and does not pay for a few months, Eircom continues to receive the rental until the line is disconnected. The Department does not pay the €20 reconnection fee, so a person whose line is cut off is left with a higher debt.
But should a distinction be made for elderly or infirm people in receipt of the telephone rental allowance?
Mr Dermot Jewell of the Consumers' Association of Ireland said protections had to be put in place to make sure that no-one in these circumstances was cut off.
"The allowance is there for a reason; these people need telephone access. It is critical to them and every effort must be made to provide for them."
Clearly, a services company needs to be able to impose some sanction for the non-payment of bills, so is there an alternative to disconnecting the line?
One service offered by Eircom is that a customer can, at any time, ask the company to restrict outgoing calls. When this is in place, the customer can still receive incoming calls and make emergency calls.
Perhaps this would be preferable as the ultimate sanction when dealing with those whose line rental is paid by the State. If the customer routed their calls through another operator and didn't pay that bill, the other operator could withdraw service but would not have the power to disconnect the Eircom line.
"The telephone is a lifeline to elderly and disabled people and, as long as the State is paying the rental charge, they should always be able to make an emergency call from home and receive calls," Mr Jewell said. The technology was available to treat this group differently, he added.
If one could be certain that every elderly or infirm individual in financial difficulty could represent their own case with Eircom and negotiate a satisfactory payment agreement to avoid being cut off, there would be no need for a change of policy in this area. However, under the current system, avoiding being cut off relies solely on successful communication between Eircom and the individual.
Family Money is aware of the details of one case where an elderly man returned from hospital to find his line had been cut off.
In Mr Jewell's opinion, many elderly people have great respect for officialdom and are embarrassed when they can't pay their way.
"They would take a long time to ask for help."
Would any party lose out if people on low, fixed incomes in receipt of the rental allowance were protected from the frightening prospect of having their line cut off?
