I move:—
That a sum, not exceeding £53,793 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, 1945, for Salaries and other Expenses in connection with Wireless Broadcasting (No. 45 of 1926), including Public Concerts.
The Estimate for the broadcasting service for the current financial year amounts to £80,693, a net increase of £1,813 on the provision for last year. The main increase is under sub-head A which is up by £2,128. This is due to increased bonus payments; increments to staff; increases of pay to members of the orchestra at the end of their first year's service; and provision for additional staff for the news service, etc. There is an increase of £135 under sub-head D because of the increasing number of outside broadcasts, and £505 in the case of sub-head E due to the increased charges for electricity. The normal provision of £190 for subscription to international and other conferences and conventions has been included this year, instead of the token provision of £10 made last year. As against these increases, the amount required under sub-head F is down by £1,200, mainly because of the difficulty in securing replacement stores. The variations under other sub-heads are of a minor nature.
Revenue from wireless licences for the financial year ended 31st March last amounted to approximately £109,000 and for advertisements, to approximately £3,500, a total of £112,500. This represents an increase of about £3,600 on the revenue for the previous year, due mainly to a rise in the number of licences held by listeners. When the Estimate was being prepared, revenue for the current year was estimated at £106,750, and expenditure, including expenditure by other Departments on services rendered to broadcasting, at £110,078. This would have shown a small estimated deficit of £3,328. Recently, however, licences have been increasing, and it is now considered probable that revenue during the current year will at least equal expenditure.
The total number of licences current on 31st ultimo was 172,042, which represents an increase of 4,371 on the figure for the corresponding date in 1943. Having regard to the difficulties met with by listeners in various parts of the country in obtaining batteries, etc., and to the small supply of new wireless sets available, I think this increase in the number of licence holders is particularly satisfactory. It is clear evidence of the popularity of the radio that, although many thousands of listeners in rural areas can use their sets only in a very restricted way because of the battery shortage, they do not hesitate to retain the sets and take out licences for this limited use.
The Broadcasting Advisory Committee provided for by the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1926, has recently been reconstituted, and I have been fortunate in securing for the committee persons interested in national culture, music, drama, literature, the Irish language, etc. The committee's functions are to advise and assist in the conduct of the broadcasting stations and the selection and control of the broadcast matter distributed from the stations. I have no doubt that the committee will provide constructive criticism and useful suggestions as to the contents of programmes and their presentation. The committee held its first meeting on 22nd February last and has held two meetings since.
When introducing the Estimate for 1943-44, I referred to the increase in the numbers of the station orchestra from 28 to 40, and to the probability that some time might elapse before the full advantage of the increase would be felt. In the short interval since, the work done by the orchestra has proved the wisdom of the increase in its strength. It has been possible to give adequate studio performances of many works which formerly would have had to be performed with some element of compromise between the instrumentation laid down by the composer and that then at our disposal. The engagement of members of the orchestra for a greater number of hours per week, which was part of the reorganisation made possible by the additional funds provided last year, has enabled us to present more frequent orchestral performances, including two lunchtime concerts weekly.
The public symphony concerts have been continued through the winter and spring season with what is, I think, agreed to have been a greater success than ever. The transfer of the concerts from the Mansion House to the Capitol Theatre, and the holding of the concerts on Sunday afternoons instead of on Thursday evenings, as in former seasons, has undoubtedly enabled a much larger public to attend and to encourage us by their constant support in the belief that there is a growing public enthusiasm for the creation and production of music, which is bound to win esteem for our cultural activities. I should like to pay a tribute to the excellent work of the orchestra and its conductor whose splendid performances have made these public concerts so successful.
The policy of encouraging musical organisations in places outside Dublin to organise series of concerts of good music continues. Radio Eireann is most anxious to help local committees of persons interested in music to provide first-class concerts in their areas and has co-operated with committees in many provincial towns. Where a committee is willing to organise such a concert and to engage the best artistes available Radio Eireann relays portion of the concert at a specially high fee. This is one of the ways in which we are endeavouring to cultivate knowledge and appreciation of the best in music throughout the country. It will, however, be appreciated that our efforts in this connection will be hampered, for a time at least, by transport difficulties.
With the intention of encouraging that important part of the musical activity of the country, unison singing, many programmes during the year were arranged with various community singing groups. The programmes proved to be very popular, and listeners were reminded of many fine old songs that had been forgotten in recent times. Good performances were given by, among others, Christian Brothers' schools in Limerick and in Dublin, by various claisceadal societies, and last but not least, the Army, which has now established four excellent choirs.
Money was made available last year for the preparation of new arrangements of traditional Irish airs, etc. Hitherto there has been great difficulty in preparing programmes of Irish music owing to the dearth of original compositions or arrangements of traditional music. Many arrangements have been commissioned already and further arrangements will be commissioned as opportunity offers, but this work will naturally be slow because of the need for maintaining a high standard. I hope that later on the Department of Education will be able to have the arrangements which are commissioned for broadcasting published and so made available for general use.
As regards the Irish language, our policy continues to be to provide in Irish programmes as interesting and as well produced as the programmes in English. But the learners and those whose Irish has grown somewhat rusty from lack of use, are not neglected, special features including short stories in simple Irish being provided for them. Apart from the provision of such programmes everything possible is being done to stimulate interest in the use of the language. Many special talks in Irish and English are broadcast by leaders of the language movement, and short pieces from the writings or speeches of great national leaders on the importance of the language are broadcast at frequent intervals.
In connection with the "Grow more Food" campaign there is the closest co-operation between the Department of Agriculture and Radio Eireann. Every week for many months past at least one talk or discussion for farmers has been broadcast. These were prepared by experts of the Department of Agriculture or by farmers with special qualifications. The scripts deal with aspects of farming of special interest at the particular time or of special concern to particular regions of the country. In all speech features, as in all musical features, of the programmes, no effort has been spared to make the best use of the best talent available to the Director of Broadcasting. This is equally true of the programme in Irish and in English. Plays, talks and discussions by the best companies of actors and the best speakers continue to be broadcast regularly, and those features which have appealed in the past to a very large public maintain their interest.
"Question Time", now in its sixth year, continues to maintain its great popularity. It has now become a concert as well as a broadcast feature, practically all the programmes in recent years being relayed from provincial centres. The demand from all over the country is so great that we can only accede to about half the applications now being received. "Information Please", a programme in which our listeners submit questions with a view to puzzling our panel of experts, has now become almost as popular as Question Time.
"Radio Digest", a "hold-all" which made its appearance some 18 months ago, has now firmly established itself. As its name implies, it is the kind of feature in which almost anything of interest can be effectively included, and one of its special features is the weekly commemoration of great men and women, Irish and foreign, as suitable occasions occur. An Treimhseachan Teann, which is the counterpart in Irish of the digest, is in every way as successful as the digest and among Irish speakers is comparatively as popular.
In the field of drama, the Abbey and Longford Players again presented a number of plays on Sunday evenings and, as usual, these were eagerly looked forward to. In plays presented and produced directly by the station officers, the works of all our representative dramatists were included. Dramatisations of the lives of national figures included:— Michael O'Clery, one of the Four Masters; the Currans of Rathfarnham, Edward Bunting, the man who saved Ireland's music, etc.
I have on many occasions in the past appealed for reasonable and constructive criticism of the broadcasting service and of the programmes. I am happy to be able to say that there has been a noticeable falling off in the amount of purely destructive criticism and that the volume of helpful letters received by the Director has shown a steady increase. While it is recognised that the views contained in letters received by the Director are not necessarily representative of the views of listeners as a whole they are of considerable assistance in measuring the degree of public interest in particular programmes, and frequently contain suggestions useful to programme staffs.
The general activities of Radio Éireann were very fully discussed on the occasion of the introduction of the Estimate for 1943-44 some five months ago. I am, therefore, not now dealing in any detail with programme features, which are matters that cannot be adequately examined here. Criticisms of details in programmes are more likely to produce useful results if made direct to the station, where they are always welcomed by the Director. I would ask Deputies, so far as possible, to discuss on this Estimate mainly the broad principles which guide the direction of broadcasting and which constitute really the proper subject matter for public discussion. The Broadcasting Annual Report, containing general information regarding the activities of the service, will shortly be available for Deputies.