I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This is the fourth Telephone Capital Bill since the establishment of the Saorstát. Funds for development of the telephone service, as distinct from its operation and maintenance, are provided by Telephone Capital Acts. These Acts authorise the Minister for Finance to issue out of the Central Fund such sums, not exceeding a stipulated amount, as may be required for development of the telephone system in accordance with estimates approved by the Minister for Finance. The funds so provided are repaid by means of terminable annuities extending over a period not exceeding 20 years. Funds so far provided under Telephone Capital Acts amount to £1,250,000—£500,000 by the Act of 1924, £500,000 by the Act of 1927 and £250,000 by the Act of 1931. The amount asked for in the present Bill is £500,000 which, together with £43,000 unexpended out of the moneys provided for under the 1931 Act, will probably suffice for the next four to five years.
The funds provided by Telephone Capital Acts represent an investment by the State in the telephone service as a business. In 1922, when control was first taken over, the capital investment in the service was about £750,000. It is now nearly £2,000,000. The cost of the service has risen from £275,750 in 1922-23 to approximately £382,000 in 1935-36. Revenue has increased in the same period from £229,736 to £487,100. In 1922-23 there was a loss on the service of £46,014. It continued to be unremunerative up to 1931-32, when the turning-point came, and since then there has been a progressive yearly profit. The profit for the year 1934-35 was £78,067, and it is expected that the closing accounts for 1935-36 will show an increase on this. The financial effect of the reductions in charges, which will become operative on the 1st July next, remains to be seen. At the outset they are estimated to cost, approximately, £56,000 in a full year.
It is unnecessary in connection with this Bill to refer in any detail to the very undeveloped and deteriorated condition of the service at its transfer in 1922 or to the various steps which were necessary in subsequent years to bring it to a reasonable state of expansion and efficiency. These matters have already been very fully dealt with in connection with previous Telephone Capital Acts—suffice to state that as compared with 1922 the number of telephone exchanges is now 769, an increase of 577. There are 1,503 call offices, including 81 kiosks, an increase of 918. The number of subscribers is now 23,106, an increase of 11,391; and there are 35,962 telephone stations, an increase of 16,744. There are 15,885 miles of trunk line, as compared with 6,603, and 108,769 miles of underground single wire, as compared with 27,141.
Of the capital funds provided so far for development, about £120,000 has been spent on the establishment of automatic exchanges in Dublin; £296,000 on providing subscribers' circuits; £476,000 on local line underground systems; £100,000 on new manual exchanges and call offices, and £107,000 on trunk lines. These are the main items.
One of the most important improvements carried out in recent years was the introduction of automatic working in the Dublin area. A start with automatics was made with the establishment of the Merrion Street and Ship Street Exchanges, and early this year the Rathmines and Terenure Exchanges were converted to automatic working. Of the 11,200 subscribers in Dublin City and suburbs, 9,300 are now served by automatics. Future plans in this connection include a large automatic exchange at Crown Alley, which will, it is hoped, be completed early next year. The whole of the Greater Dublin area will ultimately be brought within the automatic system but existing manual exchanges will be maintained so long as they are capable of giving satisfactory service. It will, however, be necessary within the next couple of years to provide a new automatic exchange at Dun Laoghaire and also to relieve the position at Drumcondra; but whether in the latter case there should be an entirely new exchange or whether the subscribers should be served instead from Crown Alley has yet to be determined.
A new exchange at Cork will also probably be necessary within the next three or four years. A decision as to the type of plant to be installed has not yet been taken.
Our telephone capital programme for the current financial year originally contemplated an expenditure of approximately £114,000. To meet the increase of trunk traffic expected to follow on the reduction of the trunk-call charges in July next and the additional demands for subscribers' installations induced by the reduction of rentals and the extension of the free mileage area from one to three miles, a considerable expansion of the programme will be necessary and a supplementary programme has been drawn up the cost of which, together with that originally proposed, will amount for the present year to a total of £176,900. Of this, approximately £70,000 will be in respect of new trunk lines and equipment and will cover the provision of additional circuits of the highest efficiency on the Dublin-Cork and Dublin-Sligo-Claremorris routes; also between Dublin and Waterford, Dublin and Drogheda, Clonmel-Waterford, Dublin-Port Laoighise, Cork-Bantry, Athlone-Galway, and in the Ennis, Nenagh, Roscommon, Cavan and various other areas.
Deputies will appreciate that the considerable augmentation of the general telephone network which will be necessary will impose a heavy strain upon our engineering branch and this, coupled with possible delays in obtaining new plant from manufacturers (who, by the way, are very much pressed at present) may mean that for some little time after the 1st July a certain amount of congestion on some of the longer distance circuits may be unavoidable; also some delay in providing service for new subscribers where any substantial pole route construction is involved. The Department is, however, making every effort to secure the necessary additional equipment and, by the taking on of extra staff, to meet all demands as quickly as possible. I trust that where unavoidable delay does occur the public will endeavour to realise the difficulties and for a time, at any rate, refrain from unduly urging their requirements.
It is probable that a particularly marked increase of traffic will materialise on the cross-Channel circuits, the charges for cross-Channel calls being substantially reduced. We are discussing with the British Post Office the possibility of securing some additional direct circuits via Belfast, or, in the event of there being difficulty in this respect, of the laying of another direct cable from Dublin.
The telephone system now extends to all the towns and the great majority of villages throughout the Saorstát, and I think the Department is entitled to claim that it is on the whole a very satisfactory service. With the forthcoming reductions, charges all round will be particularly reasonable. As regards the few remote areas and the smaller villages which are without service owing to the heavy cost which its provision would involve and the negligible traffic which would arise, the solution must lie in some form rural automatics. Experiments are proceeding but a decision in the immediate future is not likely.
I am considering at present whether in connection with the reduction of rates after 7 p.m. some extension of the existing attendance at exchanges which now close down at 8 p.m. may not be feasible. I am hopeful that in the case of all head post offices and other major exchanges it may be feasible to afford attendance up to 9 or 10 p.m. so as to give the public the benefit of two or three hours' service at the night tariff. I may add that continuous attendance at all exchanges is out of the question. The cost would be prohibitive and would be out of all proportion to the "after hours" traffic. The question is one which must also depend for its solution upon the development of country automatics.
The rate of capital expenditure for the past five years has been approximately £55,000 per annum. This rate will naturally be increased by the ordinary growth of the service, but there will be a particular rise in expenditure during the next couple of years by reason of the special measures being taken to increase equipment. As already stated, however, the £500,000 now being asked for will, it is expected, suffice for the next four or five years.
