And, according to Fine Gael's Cllr Stephen Keary who has been trying to get progress on the matter, it will be at least February before the man, a retired farmer, gets his land-line.

"It's unbelievable. I thought we had moved on from the 1970s when
people were left waiting months or even years for phones," Cllr Keary
said.

And he is particularly concerned because the man lives in the Kilcoleman area, same parish as Jim Mulqueen, the 92-year-old whose suspicious death is still being investigated by Gardai.

"He wants a land-line, not a mobile phone. If he had a land-line,
he would have a panic button," Cllr Keary said.

The man applied for his phone last August, Cllr Keary continued,
and he was given a reference number and telephone number. But he
was also told the phone could not be installed until February because
a pole has to be put up to get the service to the house - and this
requires planning permission.

"Surely it should be possible to fast-track this. I would have
thought this man was a priority. Putting up a pole and a bit of cabling is not a big job. And I really don't see why it has to go through the whole rigmarole of the planning process. There should be some way to sort this out faster."