Elderly parents cut off from family and communication through prolonged phone outage in Limerick

THE FAMILY of an elderly couple living in a remote area of the county have highlighted concerns about a phone line fault leaving them unable to reach them for weeks. 

The couple are in their 80's and out of their five adult children, only one lives in the area and works as a driver and could be anywhere in the country on any given day. 

For up to five weeks, the children were not able to reach their parents, due to a fault in the phone line near their parents’ house in Murroe.  

Speaking to the Limerick Leader, a daughter who lives in the UK said: “They live in off the road, they are very isolated. My mother depends on the house phone for everything - from ringing my brother who lives nearby to help with something in the house to ringing someone if there is a problem.”

She added that it is the only means of contacting their parents, as her mother is 83 and her father is 86. She said that neither of them use a mobile phone regularly, they might forget to charge it or may not hear it when it rings. 

“We are terribly frustrated. The whole situation is just ridiculous. A few months ago, the phone went again and it took three weeks for it to be fixed,” the concerned daughter said. 

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The telephone pole was replaced on Friday last and the family have been able to reach their parents by phone since, but they are wary of how often this has happened and how vulnerable it makes their parents and others like them. 

Independent Councillor Brigid Teefy said that she has been working with the family to resolve this and also with another affected family with a similar issue in Herbertstown. 

“They are waiting five or six weeks for it to be fixed and that's very bad. 

“The phone is more than a point of contact - it's a lifeline. People in rural communities especially older people rely on the house phones.”

Cllr Teefy said that providers need to give customers a proper and reliable service, which they are paying for. She added that some personal alarms might not activate  without a working phone.  

IFA Telecoms were contacted for a comment.