When I was interrupted by the clock last night, I was dealing with the preparations which we had made for the emergency, and I claimed that, as we had spent £100,000 on stores which have carried us through over four and a half years, we had shown a great deal of foresight. We could not spend more than the £100,000 in respect of a future of which we were not certain, but the fact that we did spend £100,000 indicates that we acted in a very reasonable manner. I was then going on to deal with the question of the automatic exchanges.
The automatic exchanges have worked satisfactorily during the past year but the load on them is increasing and, in normal times, considerable extensions would be undertaken. Equipment difficulties render any steps in this direction altogether impracticable at the moment. Notwithstanding the very formidable difficulties in the way of providing new subscribers' circuits, every effort is made and will continue to be made to meet applications for new installations for which there is genuine and special justification.
The total number of subscribers' circuits at the end of 1943 was 31,416, an increase of 1,123 on the previous year. The number of automatic telephones in the Dublin and Dún Laoghaire areas is 28,338, an increase of 926. There are now 838 exchanges and 1,512 call offices, including 155 street kiosks.
The telegraph service continues to benefit from emergency traffic, and the loss on the service, which was approximately £103,917 at the end of March, 1943, has now dropped to about £83,300. But the improvement, although welcome, is only temporary, and it is hardly open to doubt that, when emergency conditions have come to an end, the normal tendency of the telegraphs to decline, owing to the growing development of the telephones, will again manifest itself. The suspension of the cross-Channel telephone service has resulted in a diversion of a certain amount of telephone traffic to the telegraphs, but the dimensions are not considerable.
The heavy pressure experienced since the outbreak of the emergency in the stores branch which, as Deputies are aware, is the central purchasing agency for Government Departments, for the Army, Gárda Síochána, and so on, in regard to uniform, clothing, etc., continued during 1943 and there is no hope of any material diminution so long as emergency conditions obtain. The value of contracts placed during the year amounted to £1,377,639 and, although this shows a falling off of approximately 15 per cent on the figures for the previous year, it represented nevertheless about treble the pre-war contract expenditure. The falling off was due mainly to the difficulty of procuring supplies from Great Britain, there being increased reluctance on the part of British manufacturers to accept orders for stores which are subject to export licensing restrictions, unless there were reasonably good prospects that licences would eventually be issued by the British authorities concerned.
Every effort was made by the utilisation of Irish resources to a maximum extent and by inquiries on the Continent and in the United States to offset, as far as practicable, the progressive worsening in the general supply position, but while some small supplies of articles urgently needed were obtained from Portugal and Sweden, the efforts to procure supplies from foreign countries were generally unsuccessful. Close and continuous contact is, of course, maintained with the Department of Supplies with a view to ensuring that no opportunity of meeting essential requirements of the Government services shall be lost. Of the total expenditure of £1,377,639 on the purchase of stores last year, only £95,000, or 7 per cent was spent outside the State.
As an example of the special care and attention which are being devoted in the stores branch to the supply position, I may mention that a reexamination of several years assumulation of scrap was undertaken last year with a view to the recovery of useful materials. The results were particularly satisfactory so far as wire, cable, mixed metals and pedal cycles were concerned. In normal circumstances, the value of the recoveries would not pay the cost of segregating, classifying and repairing, but in existing conditions these operations are now quite profitable.
In regard to the Post Office factory, which was destroyed by fire in November, 1942, I am glad to say that practically all the new plant and equipment required for the resumption of normal activities have come to hand, and it is hoped that the necessary structural alterations will be completed within the next few months. The resumption of the full operations of the factory will, of course, depend on the availability of the necessary raw materials. Meanwhile, a not inconsiderable amount of manufacturing and repair work is being carried out with the services of about 50 per cent. of the normal factory staff. We have actually managed to provide employment, either in the factory or elsewhere, for practically the whole of the regular male staff, the service of only four men having been dispensed with, and these will be taken on again when work is available for them.
As regards buildings, the outstanding work of the year was the new trunk telephone exchange in Exchequer Street, to which reference has already been made. The congestion in the public office of the General Post Office concerning which representations have been made by Deputies has been satisfactorily relieved by the opening of an auxiliary office in Prince's Street, in which payment of telegraph money orders and various classes of allowances has been concentrated. This extra accommodation will be particularly advantageous in connection with the payment of children's allowances when the scheme relating to the latter comes into operation in August next. To facilitate the public in regard to the business transacted at the various counters in the General Post Office, we are arranging for the erection in each of the entrance porches of large notices in suitable frames, giving full particulars of the business carried on at each counter. It is expected that these notice will shortly be in position.
Proposals for improving the accommodation at the Waterford Post Office are at present in hand. Major building schemes, for some of which plans have been approved, cannot, of course, be proceeded with until emergency conditions come to an end, owing to difficulties in regard to materials.
The position of the Savings Bank continues to be satisfactory. The number of depositors increased by 44,200 during last year. The ordinary deposits for the year amounted to £6,606,700 and the withdrawals to £2,927,700.
