Eircom is to withdraw cardphones from at least 400 schools and replace them with multi-payphones - but the replacement will take place only if schools can guarantee a minimum annual revenue for the new phones of £1,500. Where the revenue cannot be guaranteed, the school must make up the shortfall to qualify for the new phone.
Eircom confirmed yesterday it plans to remove the existing cardphones from up to 400 schools across the State by November 20th. Schools that qualify will have new phones installed which accept call cards, credit cards and coins.
Schools favour the call-card telephone because it reduces the use of mobile phones during school hours and because the absence of money in school telephones removes the risk of vandalism and theft.
Those schools which cannot meet the annual revenue target of £1,500 or are unable to make up the difference will not qualify for the three-in-one telephone. Instead, they will be offered the option of a "sure call" payphone free of charge which will be operated and owned by the school.
Alternatively, schools could rent a "coincall" payphone from Eircom, which would be free for the first year, or simply rent a new line which would also be free for the first year and which could be attached to the school switch board.
The Christian Brothers' Secondary School in Youghal, Co Cork, will be affected by the new scheme. Its principal, Mr Kieran Groeger, said yesterday the 300 pupils were required under school rules to carry a £2 call card with them.
The school card-phone was being removed, he added, because the £374.25p it earned last year, according to Eircom, "is well below the costs associated with the running and maintenance of the payphone".
"I would have thought a safe public telephone in a school was a public service and not a matter of profit-making. One other advantage of the system was that it reduced the nuisance of mobile phones in the school," he said.
An Eircom spokesman said card-phones were being withdrawn from general use, including schools, because Eircom was updating its systems and making them euro-compatible. While Eircom appreciated the anxiety of schools about having money on the premises, there were alternatives available if schools could not afford the three-in-one telephone.