..END OF THE LINE; Ireland to get rid of trusty phone boxes.

Byline: BY BRIAN HUTTON

IRELAND is hanging up on the public telephone box with almost half of all kiosks to be cut off, it emerged yesterday.

The once familiar payphone in every village, town and city looks set to be the stuff of nostalgia as the mobile dominates the airwaves.

Eircom said it will remove 2,151 of the remaining 4,850 public payphones dotted around the country's highways and byways starting in April.

In the early 1990s, there were more than 8,500 public payphones across the Republic.

Fine Gael's community and rural affairs spokesman Michael Ring denounced the move as an attack on the poor and people who live in the countryside.

He said: "They have taken away the railways, the post offices and this is another attack on rural Ireland and an attack on the most needy in society, who can't afford mobile phones." But Eircom's Dearbhaill Rossiter insisted usage of payphones had plummeted by more than 80 per cent over the past five years - making many no longer financially viable.

She said: "Payphone usage has declined dramatically, in today's environment there is no longer as much of a need for them.

"We are not removing every payphone in Ireland but in the case of these particular payphones there is little and in some cases no usage. It is actually costing us money to retain them."

But Mr Ring argued: "These payphones might be the only contact an old man in a rural area has with a doctor or a hospital, if they don't have a mobile or a landline.

"It's all about the social contact as well, they could be cut away from the outside world."

Eircom has begun pasting notices to the thousands of payphones that it intends to remove from service as part of a public consultation process. Letters have also been sent to the local councils in the areas affected.

Both residents and political leaders are being given the opportunity to object by March 16.

Ms Rossiter added: "All views received will be taken into account before a final decision is made on the removal of any payphone."

In a survey carried out by Eircom last year, eight out of every 10 people said they had not used a public payphone during the previous year, with almost a fifth saying they had.

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AGE OF FIRST PHONE BOX ON DUBLIN'S DAWSON ST

They have taken away the railways, the post offices and this is another attack on rural Ireland and the most needy in society

MICHAEL RING

CAPTION(S):

FOR WHOM BELLS TOLL Ireland's oldest pay phone in Dublin yesterday Picture: NIALL CARSON/PA WIRE