Deputy Anthony perhaps is not aware that Bunting is being edited, I understand, and published by a private publisher. That is to say, a gentleman here in Dublin who is well known has undertaken to republish and re-edit Bunting's work. It is not being done under Government auspices. The work we are chiefly concerned with is the work prepared by Carl Hardebeck. There has been, unfortunately, a delay in getting that music printed but a substantial number of pieces by Hardebeck will be available. Probably about a hundred pieces in all will be available in a comparatively short time. There is a small committee of experts to advise the Department regarding the suitability for publication of pieces of Irish music. I think that the committee is doing its work satisfactorily. It is prepared to consider very carefully any work offered to it —either original work or, as the Deputy suggested, the re-editing of Bunting or of the work of other early workers in that sphere. We have also a committee of experts in connection with the publication of text books. With regard to the ordinary publications under the Gúm, they are intended for the general reader and they are, generally, works of fiction and very largely translations. It may be that some of these translations are not regarded as satisfactory, but there is a difficulty because we have to try to provide the type of ordinary reading which young people are accustomed to have in English. We have to try to provide that type of ordinary fiction in Irish. Some people might think that the type of fiction ordinarily read by young people does them a certain amount of harm. I do not agree. I simply say that it need not be of a very high standard. The Gúm had undertaken the publication of a large number of these translations and were committed to publishing them. They had expended a certain amount of money on having them translated and, although I held up a certain number of them, there was a definite loss, from the financial point of view, in not proceeding with their publication when arrangements had proceeded a certain length. In addition to that type of ordinary fiction for adolescent and adult readers, there is the question of providing standard works of a more substantial character—historical and biographical works. The Gúm is quite prepared to undertake the publication of works of that kind. They have published recently a life of Daniel O'Connell in Irish and other works of that kind which, I think, compare favourably with corresponding standard works in English or other languages.
The number of writers we have in Irish is not very great, and we should like to see a steady output of works in all departments. We should like to see, as Deputy Dillon has suggested, a fairly good output of children's books. In my opinion, there is not at all a large enough selection of books for small children. We have also to keep in mind the need of our young people who are in secondary schools or who are leaving secondary schools. The number of books in Irish read by these people at the present time is astonishing. We have advertised frequently and offered what we consider to be good terms for original works in Irish. We have not got as many original works as we should like. That is not the fault of the Gúm.
I should like to call attention to the fact that while there is a good deal of criticism—much of it unfounded—of the work of the Gúm, very little is being done to encourage the Gúm by trying to get sales for the books, even the books about which there is general agreement as to their value. Except in rare cases, one does not get a sale of more than 1,000 copies. That is a very bad indication of the interest taken in Irish literature. If we are to do satisfactory work in modern Irish literature, we shall have to try to increase the Irish-reading public. With regard to the appearance of the books, the aim is to make them as cheap as possible. These books, which are generally available at a price of 2/-, may not be everything one would wish from the point of view of appearance, but the Government is not making any profit on them. The sole aim is to put the book on the market in legible clear print with a reasonably good appearance but not very ornamental, since our idea is to keep the price as low as possible. If Deputies will compare the prices of the Gúm publications with the prices of books published by private firms, they will see that no effort whatever is being made to obtain profits, and that the sole idea is to make the books as cheap as possible for our young readers.
In conclusion, may I say that there are great difficulties with regard to the printing and correction of books in Irish? I am informed and I believe that there is a shortage of printers who have a good knowledge of Irish and that there is a shortage of readers in the printing offices who are capable of correcting works in Irish, with the result that a huge amount of correction is thrown back upon the Gúm, which should not ordinarily be the case. In fact, a great deal of work is done by the Gúm in putting manuscripts in proper form before being sent to the printers, apart from the huge amount of correction that takes place subsequently. Having regard to these great difficulties, I think the record of the Gúm is very good. They have published 300 books, are having printed about 115, and 120 further volumes have been accepted and are in course of preparation for the printers. Our object is to improve the quality of the books not only from the point of view of appearance but from the point of view of their literary quality and their usefulness to the public. To make the scheme of the Gúm a success, it is necessary, in the first place, that we should have educated writers who will have the requisite qualities to enable them to write attractive original works in Irish and, in the second place, that we should have a sufficient reading public to encourage those writers, so that, if their works are produced by the Gúm, they will get a far larger number of readers than they seem to be getting at the present time.
