Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 6 Mar 1946

Vol. 99 No. 16

Committee on Finance. - Vote 61—Posts and Telegraphs.

Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (Mr. Little)

I move:—

That a supplementary sum not exceeding £142,785 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1946, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (45 & 46 Vict., c. 74; 8 Edw. 7, c. 48; 1 & 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 Estimate for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs already approved by the Dáil for the financial year ending 31st March, 1946, amounted to £3,225,125. Due to causes which could not have been anticipated, this provision will be insufficient, and an additional sum of £142,785 will be required to cover essential expenditure up to the end of the financial year. The actual excess over the approved Estimate amounts to £165,815, but there is an offsetting saving of £23,030, representing increased Appropriations-in-Aid, leaving the net excess at £142,785.

Increased emergency bonus, payable as from 1st January, 1946, accounts for £26,855 of the additional sum of £69,075 required under sub-heads A (2) and (3), I (1) and O (1). The causes of other appreciable increases are, broadly, as follows:—

Sub-heads A (2) and (3). Increase of £29,000, apart from that caused by grant of additional bonus. This is due to increased staff and extra duty provision necessitated by general expansion of business, by unanticipated election expenses, by extra Christmas postal deliveries, and by the grant of sick pay privileges to temporary force.

Sub-head D. Increase, £10,100. Due mainly to purchase of new premises at Capel Street, Dublin, to serve as a stores warehouse.

Sub-head E (1). Increase, £6,640. This represents additional payments to railway companies in respect of increased letter and parcel mails.

Sub-head I (1). Increase, £6,350. Due to increased provision for storm repair work.

Sub-head K. Increase £44,000. Due to the purchase of urgently required engineering stores, previously in short supply, which became available at the end of hostilities, as well as to delivery earlier than expected of stores already on order.

Sub-head N (1). Increase £36,000. Due to abnormal increase in the number of retirements, including female officers on marriage.

Sub-head O (1). Increase £6,870. The increased provision is due to growth of Savings Bank business, including work in connection with the payment of Army gratuities.

The increase in the receipts under sub-head T —Appropriations-in-Aid— £23,030, is attributable mainly to additional receipts of £12,000 in respect of agency services performed on behalf of other administrations; £7,910 from Savings Bank Funds; and £2,500 in respect of work performed for railway companies and others.

Mr. Cosgrave

Can the Minister say if the increased supplies will enable an extension to be made of telephone services to those who require them, or will it be used merely for the purpose of repairs? While I appreciate the difficulties under which the Department have laboured for the duration of the emergency, it does seem rather unfortunate that at present, in a place like Booterstown, County Dublin, the telephone facilities cannot be extended to prospective users in the area. If telephone equipment, such as receivers, and so on, is not available, of course that is the reason why the service cannot be extended. While the public did not expect during the emergency that large - scale extensions could be undertaken, say, in rural areas, I think the public expect now that better facilities will be provided, at least, if the supplies which the Minister has outlined become available and that in extending the service preference will be given to those who require the telephone for business purposes or in the course of their professional duties. I have had a few complaints, not very many, but some of the people concerned required the telephone for business or professional purposes. I would ask the Minister to give the House an indication as to when an extension of the service will be possible.

Mr. Byrne

May I ask the Minister if, at an early date, he will be able to deal with the complaints in connection with the telephone service in the cattle market area of the North Circular Road?

An Ceann Comhairle

I am afraid Deputies are inclined to discuss general administration of the Post Office, which hardly arises on this Estimate.

Mr. Little

On a point of explanation, perhaps the Deputies would wait for big issues like this until the general Estimate comes on, which will be very shortly.

Mr. Byrne

Having to wait for the general Estimate will create difficulties.

An Ceann Comhairle

Of course, my difficulty is that it is not relevant on this Estimate.

Mr. Byrne

Well, I will not press it, but I would ask the Minister to consider the cattle market area of the North Circular Road, where the line has been overloaded for the last couple of years. We were promised remedies but we have not got them. Could the Minister now give us some assurance?

An Ceann Comhairle

Would the Deputy not think it likely that other Deputies might have observations that they would like to make?

Mr. Byrne

I think they are all agreed that the cattle market area for Ireland deserves consideration.

An Ceann Comhairle

And will not raise anything else?

Mr. Byrne

Yes.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy guarantees that?

Mr. Little

If the Deputy only knew.

Mr. Blowick

In regard to sub-head K, do I understand that engineering stores are coming in more briskly than they did formerly?

Mr. Little

Yes.

Mr. Blowick

And that there is a likelihood that we can expect an extension of the service in places in respect to which we have been representing for some time that an extension should be made? I suppose that is going outside the scope of the Vote.

An Ceann Comhairle

Yes.

Mr. Norton

There is an item in this Estimate for the purchase of sites. I think it is a matter for congratulation every time the Post Office moves at all to purchase sites because there is probably no Government Department that is more in need of proper and up-to-date accommodation than the Post Office. Many of the buildings around the country, the Minister ought to know—I am keeping on the general question of Post Office administration——

An Ceann Comhairle

I see that.

Mr. Little

This is for sites, not accommodation.

Mr. Norton

Many of the Post Office buildings are not satisfactory. Some of them were built 60 and 80 years ago and were built in positions which have not facilitated their extension. In the meantime, of course, the Post Office has taken on a vast amount of new work and tries to get all this new work done in offices which are very unsightly and utterly inadequate for the proper transaction of public business. The Post Office ought to take a leaf out of the banks' book and make some effort to enhance this State service and its prestige by providing proper buildings. If one goes into many towns and cities in this country——

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy is going into Post Office buildings now.

Mr. Norton

I am keeping on accommodation, Sir.

An Ceann Comhairle

Sites are all that are here, except Capel Street.

Mr. Norton

You cannot build an office until you get a site. At least I do not think so.

An Ceann Comhairle

Quite, and this is for the site only.

Mr. Norton

I want to say to the Minister that the sites of the present offices are in many cases—very, very unsatisfactory and that therefore he could very usefully acquire additional sites and ought to acquire them as soon as possible so as to erect on those sites decent post offices instead of the unsightly structures which, in many cases, are there at the moment. I do not know whether the Minister really appreciates the magnitude of the problem of providing proper accommodation for the transaction of Post Office business, but I think it would be only necessary for him to make inquiries in his Department to realise that from all over the country there are complaints from the public and the staff as to the inadequacy of the accommodation provided for the transaction of business.

The Post Office has taken on various new activities in the form of the payment of children's allowances, payment of widows' and orphans' pensions, payment of Army pensions, dealing with ration coupons. There has been a considerable increase in telephone, telegraph and parcel traffic and the Post Office endeavours to perform all that work with accommodation which is grossly insufficient for the public requirements. I think, therefore, having had this matter raised now, the Minister ought to exercise his ingenuity and his administrative mind in endeavouring between now and the introduction of the main Estimate to make proper provision for the purchase of additional sites so as to remedy the defects from which the Post Office service suffers by reason of the present unsatisfactory accommodation. I do not want to raise at this stage the question of the Pearse Street distillery which masquerades as a sorting office. I defer that until the main Estimate.

Mr. Little

A most excellent building.

Mr. Norton

There is an item here relating to engineering materials. Apparently we are going to get more of these. I wonder would the Minister tell us how much of the engineering equipment will be in the way of telephone switch-boards and whether or not he is going to make a serious effort to grapple with the problem of telephone delays due to inadequate accommodation and inadequate equipment. The Minister is getting in more equipment now and I think I am entitled to ask, (1) what kind of equipment it is, and (2) what he is going to do with it and where he is going to locate it.

An Ceann Comhairle

Without discussing all the places.

Mr. Norton

Yes. I know the Minister is seriously concerned about the effect of the development of Rineanna on the postal services in this country and, presumably, on the telephone service as well. I notice the Minister has been down at Rineanna on a couple of occasions recently. I suppose the development of Rineanna and the large influx of traffic there inevitably make it necessary to accelerate the telephone service in the area. The next time the Minister is down at Rineanna, I wonder would he look at the Ennis telephone exchange.

An Ceann Comhairle

I think he cannot, under this Vote.

Mr. Norton

I am not going to develop it.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy is making a very fair effort.

Mr. Norton

The place baffles description.

An Ceann Comhairle

Why describe it, then?

Mr. Norton

It is more like a museum than a telephone exchange. I think the Minister ought to concern himself with a situation of that kind.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy is outside this Estimate and I think he is fairly conscious of the fact.

Mr. Norton

Indeed I am not.

Mr. Little

The Deputy is spoiling his speech for the main Estimate.

Mr. Norton

We will have plenty for that. Do not worry.

Mr. Cafferky

Tell us what we are entitled to discuss?

An Ceann Comhairle

What is in the Estimate?

Mr. Norton

I want to direct the Minister's attention to the necessity for providing additional switchboards in these offices where he must know there is considerable delay to telephone traffic because of the absence of switchboards and because of the fact that it is not possible to employ a staff to deal with existing telephone traffic owing to the absence of switchboards. Ennis is one of the places to which the Minister should direct his immediate attention.

An Ceann Comhairle

The Deputy is back again in Clare.

Mr. Norton

Because, notwithstanding the fact that it is the second largest town to Rineanna, there was telephone delay amounting to about four hours last year and I suppose it will be more this year when the larger influx of passengers takes place at Rineanna.

I hope that between now and the time when the main Estimate is introduced the Minister will be able to give some indication, if he cannot give it now, about what he intends to do to overtake the very serious lag in the provision of proper buildings for the transaction of Post Office business. There is need for very radical reforms so far as Post Office buildings are concerned. It is an aspect of Post Office administration which presses both on the staff and on the public who are compelled to discharge their business in circumstances which are no great reflection——

An Ceann Comhairle

There is no money in this Vote for buildings.

Mr. Norton

You have to have a site before you have buildings.

An Ceann Comhairle

Buildings are not mentioned in this Vote.

Mr. Little

All those individual cases which have been mentioned, Booterstown, the Markets, etc., are all necessarily part of a very big problem with which we are confronted with regard to the telephone service. When you consider that the increase in 1945 on trunks alone was 500,000 calls, and that the increase on the local telephone service was 5,000,000 in one year, you can see the tremendous problems that we are confronted with even in dealing with our arrears. In the plans which we are very actively considering at the moment, we have two aspects: one is to deal with the enormous amount of arrears, and the other is to go out planning for a much bigger spread of telephone services all over the country. I need not say any more about the other matters. Deputy Norton got away from sites to buildings. Of course, he could not avoid his King Charles's head, the sorting office in Pearse Street, which is not so bad at all.

Mr. Byrne

Has the Minister anything to say about the cattle market area?

Mr. Little

We are going to put up kiosks.

Mr. Hughes

I asked the Minister two or three Parliamentary Questions about that, and he made certain promises. I do not think he has fulfilled them.

Mr. Little

It is under way. The material, which is coming in, is mostly copper wire and parts for the switch-boards.

Mr. Norton

Is the Minister hoping to provide any additional switchboards out of these?

Mr. Little

Yes, I imagine we will be.

Mr. Cosgrave

Will the Minister be able to supply parts for private switch-boards?

Mr. Little

I think we will have to stick to headquarters switchboards for some time to come.

Mr. Norton

How many new operating switchboards are included?

Mr. Little

It would be difficult to say. The stuff is coming in constantly. It would be difficult to give anything like an accurate figure at the moment.

Mr. Norton

Do you hope even to get a dozen operating switchboards?

Mr. Little

I think so.

Vote put, and agreed to.