The final number of applications from the public for Telecom Eireann shares now looks certain to exceed 500,000 and could reach as many as 550,000. The sorting of all the applications and the weeding out of those incorrectly completed continued yesterday.

The high level of interest will put pressure on the Government to make more shares available to the public. It has said that 40 per cent of the shares being sold will go to the public and 40 per cent to major financial institutional investors. It is to announce next week where the remaining 20 per cent will go. The majority of these remaining shares may now be allocated to the public.

Some 1.18 million people registered to buy Telecom shares and it now appears that around 45 per cent of them went ahead to actually apply for shares, a high figure by international standards.

The Government will announce the allocation for investors and the price of the shares next Wednesday. Discussions on the price have still to get underway in earnest, but it still appears likely that a price in the middle of the range indicated by the Government - or about £2.90 to £2.95 (€3.68-€3.75) - will be chosen.

Yesterday, Mr Con Scanlon of Telecom's main trade union, the Communications Workers' Union, called for the price to be set at £2.64, the bottom of the indicated range, which he said would put a realistic value on the company.