I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £913,210 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1944, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Puist agus Telegrafa (45 and 46 Vict., c. 74; 8 Edw. 7, c. 48; 1 and 2 Geo. 5, c. 26; Na hAchtanna Telegrafa, 1863 go 1928; Uimh. 14 de 1940 (Ailt 30 agus 31); Uimh. 14 de 1942 (Alt. 23); etc.), agus Seirbhísí áirithe eile atá fé riaradh na hOifige sin.
That a sum, not exceeding £913,210, be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending the 31st day of March, 1944, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (45 and 46 Vict., c. 74; 8 Edw. 7, c. 48; 1 and 2 Geo. 5, c. 26; the Telegraph Acts, 1863 to 1928; No. 14 of 1940 (Secs. 30 and 31); No. 14 of 1942 (Sec. 23); etc.), and of certain other services administered by that Office.
The estimated Post Office expenditure for 1943/44 amounts to a total of £2,732,210, representing a net increase of £87,069 on the provision for 1942/43. The gross increase amounts to £134,613, of which £84,793 is due to emergency bonus payments. The balance, £49,820, is attributable mainly to extra staff provision necessitated by growth of work and substitution of officers on loan to other Departments and on military service; to provision for an extra week's pay (53 pay days in the current year); staff incremental increases: additional payments to contractors for conveyance of mails by road; higher payments to other administrations in respect of air mail correspondence for countries abroad; increased cost in respect of manufacture of stamps, losses by default, etc.; higher provision in respect of superannuation allowances, etc., etc. Offsetting the increases there are reductions amounting to £38,536, resulting principally from savings through retirements; reduced expenditure on purchases of stores and uniforms by reason of supply difficulties; greater relief from telephone capital: reduced travelling by engineering officers owing to restrictions caused by emergency conditions, etc. These reductions, combined with a higher credit (£9,008) in respect of Appropriations-in-Aid—mainly under sub-heads T (5) and T (12)—make the estimated net increase in expenditure £87,069.
The financial position of the three main Post Office services—Postal, Telegraph and Telephone—on a commercial basis showed a decided improvement at the end of the financial year, 1941-42 (the last year for which commercial accounts are available), as compared with that at the corresponding period of the preceding year. On the 31st March, 1941, the net deficit on the three services amounted to a total of £155,070, the postal services showing a deficit of £115,257, the telegraphs a deficit of £130,203, and the telephones a surplus of £90,390. On the 31st March, 1942, the situation had improved as follows:—
Postal Service—Revenue, £1,818,311; expenditure, £1,726,845; surplus, £91,466. Telegraph Service—Revenue, £227,194; expenditure, £342,767; deficit, £115,573. Telephone Service— Revenue, £753,429; expenditure, £573,264; surplus, £180,165.
That is to say, the deficit of £155,070 at the end of the financial year 1941, had, at the end of the following year, been converted into a surplus of £156,058. During 1941-42 revenue on a commercial account basis improved by £386,000. Of this amount £243,000 approximately, was attributable to the increased postage rates introduced in June, 1941; £38,000 and £105,000 to the greater use of the telegraph and telephone services, respectively, as a result of emergency conditions. Expenditure during 1941-42 increased by £74,800, due to augmented staff costs; exceptional purchases of stores; additional cost of conveying mails; increased cost of maintenance of the telegraph and telephone systems, etc. The net result for the year was, as I have indicated, a favourable balance of £156,058.
For the last financial year—1942-43— true revenue, that is actual cash receipts, is estimated at £2,425,000, an increase of £110,000 on the actual revenue for the previous year. Telegraph and telephone receipts are up by approximately £48,000 and £123,000, respectively, while postal receipts show a drop of approximately £61,000. So far as can be judged at present revenue during 1943-44 is likely to reach the existing level, but the position in this respect will, of course, be influenced by the nature and extent of any further emergency developments affecting general business activities that may take place.
Mail services by rail are still on the restricted scale introduced in October, 1941, as a result of the coal situation, although the trains on the whole are now adhering more closely to scheduled running. The position of the road motor services has, however, altered as a consequence of the acute petrol shortage, which has necessitated large scale conversions to horse transport, with resultant disimprovement in deliveries and despatches in many areas. The matter is, of course, one which is not within the power of the Department to control, and the alternative services which have been arranged are the best that are reasonably practicable.
The external mail services remain generally unchanged. The use of air mails to Europe and America for both private and commercial correspondence is growing: the traffic despatched now amounts to approximately 600,000 items a year. The outgoing airgraph service introduced in March last is being extensively used.
The telegraph service continues to benefit from emergency traffic, the loss of £115,573 at the end of March, 1942, having fallen to about £73,000 at the corresponding period this year. Delivered messages during 1942 showed an enormous increase. As I have, however, said on previous occasions I can see no prospect of any permanent improvement in the financial condition of the telegraphs and, when emergency factors disappear, the normal tendency of the service to decline owing to the growing development of the telephones will, I fear, almost inevitably again manifest itself.
The expansion of the telephone service which I commented on last year continues and will doubtless continue while the emergency lasts. Every added limitation of ordinary public facilities—transport, fuel, supplies, etc. —seems, by reason, no doubt, of the upset to normal activities, to react immediately on the telephones. During 1942 local calls totalled 38,550,000, an increase of 1,673,000 on the previous year. Trunk calls reached 5,500,000, an increase of 534,000. The increase in the trunk traffic was mainly on internal calls, i.e., calls wholly within Eire. The continued growth of trunk traffic has naturally affected in some degree the standard of the service, particularly at peak hours. All possible measures are, however, taken to keep delay to a minimum, but the position is obviously one for which there is no complete remedy. The difficulties in regard to supplies of engineering construction stores render it quite impossible in present circumstances to provide sufficient additional circuits to cater fully for the increased traffic, even if this traffic were of a normal character instead of being, as it is, largely emergency and non-permanent.
With the object of improving the position as far as reasonably possible it has been decided, in the interests of telephone users generally, to impose a restriction of duration to six minutes on trunk calls during the busy traffic hours. In order, however, to minimise inconvenience, operators are given discretion, on request being made, to extend duration on very important calls, but this discretion must, of necessity, be sparingly exercised. The restriction is not imposed at all during normally slack traffic hours. I am satisfied that this restriction of duration, which has been in operation for some months past, so far from causing any general inconvenience tends to facilitate the general public.
The standard of the local service generally is good. In Dublin the increased traffic lias unfortunately caused some deterioration in the speed of answering from "0,""30" and "31." Everything practicable is done by generous staffing provision to ensure a uniformly satisfactory standard of service, but delay is at times unavoidable, especially at heavy traffic periods, owing to the inability of the equipment to carry the abnormal load. Additional equipment cannot be provided in Crown Alley Exchange, but such difficulties as exist will, it is hoped, disappear when the new exchange in Exchequer Street is opened early next year.
The standard of answering from telegrams ("39") is now, on the whole, very good. The total number of subscribers' circuits at the end of 1942 was 30,293, an increase of 1,189 on the previous year. The total number of telephones in use was 48,822, an increase of 1,507. The number of automatic telephones in the Dublin and Dun Laoghaire areas is 27,109, an increase of 937. There are now 842 exchanges and 1,503 call offices, including 152 street kiosks.
For some time past the shortage of engineering stores, to which I have already referred, has necessitated restrictions on the provision of new exchange lines, involving a considerable amount of construction work, particularly in rural areas, and on the provision of extension circuits, bells, etc. As a result of the continued worsening of the supply position, it recently became necessary to extend this restrictive policy and to limit the provision of additional subscribers' lines generally. In giving effect to what is an unavoidable decision, however, everything possible is being done to meet the requirements of essential services —doctors, hospitals, etc.—and of emergency services. In connection with the supply question generally, I may say that, although a considerable reserve of engineering stores—wire, cable, etc.—had been built up prior to the emergency, this reserve is now, mainly owing to the requirements of the emergency services, practically exhausted, and cannot be replaced. It is necessary, of course, to maintain a minimum reserve for further emergency needs, and this cannot be drawn upon for ordinary requirements.
Notwithstanding the adverse position in regard to renewals of supplies of engineering stores, I am glad to say that during the past year it was found possible to keep employment in engineering grades at the same level as during the previous year and every hope is entertained that during the coming year it will be practicable to find work for all existing regular full-time staff. This result has been achieved largely by using again materials that in normal times would have been scrapped, and by adopting methods which, while needing more labour for their execution than the normal standard methods, have enabled considerable economies to be effected in the use of new stores. Thus, by their resourcefulness in using scrap material, our engineering staff have succeeded in retaining in employment many men who would otherwise have been left unemployed and have thereby done a real national service. This was in very thorough pursuance of Government policy.
The heavy pressure experienced in the stores branch in 1940 and 1941, as a result of emergency conditions, continued during 1942 and there seems to-be little prospect of any appreciable easement so long as the emergency lasts. The difficulties of procuring supplies of articles which must be imported, or for which the raw materials must be imported, have been continuously increasing, according as the control by the British authorities on all forms of industry in Great Britain has become more rigid. There are now few, if any, industrial products which may be exported from Great Britain without licence and the problem of meeting the stores requirements of the public service here is, accordingly, becoming extremely acute in many respects.
The total value of contracts placed by the stores branch during 1942 amounted to £1,624,580, which represents a falling off of about 15 per cent. on the figures for the previous year, due to the difficulties of the supply position. In some instances, where quotations were received from firms in Great Britain, they contained so many qualifications and restrictions that contracts could not be placed. The question of obtaining from America supplies of goods unobtainable from Great Britain was considered but, owing to export restrictions in the United States, no useful results accrued.
Of the total contract expenditure, £1,309,460, or 80 per cent., was in respect of articles manufactured or assembled in Eire.
The stores branch, too, deserves very special commendation for the energy shown in finding Irish materials and workmanship in substitution for importations from outside the country. This is work to which the Government attaches considerable importance.
The destruction of the Post Office factory by fire on the morning of the 4th November, 1942, resulted in the cessation, pending replacement of plant and machinery, of the manufacture of special items of stores for the Department and of many articles required for defence services. The loss sustained was considerable, the main building having been completely burnt out, with its plant, equipment, stocks of materials and stores, testing apparatus, as well as a large number of telephone switchboards in process of manufacture.
The problem of re-establishing the factory was energetically taken in hand and it was decided, as a provisional measure, to utilise an adapted warehouse of concrete construction, located in the vicinity of the destroyed building. The stores ordinarily held in the warehouse have been removed to temporary premises elsewhere in the city. Special efforts to procure machines and machine tools in replacement of those destroyed have, notwithstanding the serious difficulties of the times, met with a considerable measure of success. A certain amount of reconditioning of damaged machines has also been found practicable.
Notwithstanding the practical cessation of the operations of the factory, it is a matter for satisfaction that only two of the male workers had to be discharged as a result of the fire. The others were retained on salvaging and reconditioning of plant, tools and stores, or on such repair work as did not require the use of machinery, or on work in other branches of the Department. In the case of the female workers it was, I regret, necessary to pay off 27 out of 35, but a large number of those discharged were merely temporary and would have had to go, in any event, on the completion of the particular job on which they were engaged. Eight have since been taken on again, making a total of 16 females now in employment.
I am unable to say when the main operations of the factory are likely to be resumed—hardly, in any event, earlier than April next. The difficulties in existing circumstances are obviously considerable. The matter is, however, receiving very special attention and nothing that is feasible will be left undone to hasten complete restoration.
The structural alterations necessary for the improvement of the district office at James's Street, Dublin, have been completed. Other building works of a major character, which would ordinarily be now in progress, cannot on account of shortage of materials, be proceeded with until emergency conditions have come to an end.
The position of the Savings Bank shows continued improvement. The number of depositors increased by 35,600 during 1942. The ordinary deposits for the year amounted to £5,037,600, and the withdrawals to £2,280,300, these figures being greater than the figures for the preceding year by £1,391,000 and £115,400, respectively. The net increase in the balance remaining invested at the close of 1942 was £2,757,300, exclusive of interest earned during the year, which amounted to approximately £380,800.
In addition to the ordinary deposits, a sum of £686,970 was deposited, by way of investment, in respect of moneys received by the Minister for Finance for the credit of Trustee Savings Banks under Section 31 of the Finance Act, 1940, bringing the total so invested since the 21st November, 1940, up to £1,311,620. Of this amount, £31,400 was withdrawn by the banks during the period, leaving the net amount invested at the end of 1942, £1,280,220. The interest credited to the banks in respect of the investments amounted to approximately £33,300.
In concluding this statement, I wish to express my appreciation of the efficiency with which the staffs of all grades performed their various duties during the year.