I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £3,233,500 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, 1948, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs (45 and 46 Vict., c. 74; 8 Edw. 7, c. 48; 1 and 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 gross Post Office Estimate for 1947-48 amounts to £4,580,501 but allowing for receipts totalling £225,001 which are expected to be appropriated in aid, the net estimate amounts to £4,355,500. This represents a net increase of £428,365 over the provision for 1946-47. The causes of the variations under the respective sub-heads are chiefly:—
Sub-heads A (1) to A (4)—Salaries, Wages and Allowances.—The increase of £256,320 on these sub-heads is due mainly to an additional provision of £159,120 to meet increases resulting from the consolidation of the remuneration of civil servants as from 1st November, 1946. The improvements already announced in the remuneration of subpostmasters account for another £52,795 and the balance of £44,405 is in respect of normal incremental increases; additional staff to meet growth of work; more frequent deliveries on rural posts, etc. There are offsetting decreases due to savings on retirements, increased relief from telephone capital funds, etc.
B.B.—International and other Conferences and Conventions.—Increase £1,340: to provide for travelling and subsistence expenses of delegates to conferences of the International Postal Union at Paris and the International Telecommunications Union at Washington, which are due to open next month; also to increased subscriptions to the Postal, Telegraph and Radio Telegraph Unions.
C—Rent, Office Fittings, etc.—Increase £3,760: to cover increased rents, rent and rates on newly acquired premises, and increased charges for and higher consumption of electricity.
D—Purchase of Sites, etc.—Increase £3,950: to provide for the acquisition of additional sites for Post Office requirements, other than sites required for telephone development the cost of which is borne on telephone capital funds.
E (1)—Conveyance of Mails by Rail. —The decrease of £4,845 represents an anticipated reduction in payments for mail conveyance.
E (2)—Conveyance of Mails by Road. —Increase £6,300: due to increased payments to mail car contractors in respect of additional services and increased operating costs.
E (4)—Packet Service British and Foreign.—The increase of £1,300 is due to the resumption of overseas services which had been discontinued during the emergency.
E (5)—Conveyance of Mails by Air.— Decrease £20,000: due mainly to the clearance of arrears in respect of United States Air Mail accounts for which provision was made in the Estimate for 1946-47.
G (1)—Stores (Non-Engineering).— The extra £30,630 is to cover the provision of new mail bags, additional hand-carts and letter boxes required for growing postal services; cycles contracted for in 1946-47 but not delivered; increased cost of replacement motor vehicles; the building up of domestic stores unobtainable during the emergency, etc.
G (2)—Uniform clothing.—The increase of £3,850 provides for increased issues and higher cost of tailoring.
G (3)—Manufacture of Stamps, etc.— An additional £2,570 is required because of increased purchases and prices of watermarked paper.
I (1)—Engineering Establishment Salaries, etc.—Increase £70,045: representing provision for additional staff; increases in pay resulting from consolidation; increments, etc., offset by greater relief from telephone capital funds and savings on retirements.
I (2)—Engineering Branch, Travelling Expenses.—Increase £5,785: due to increased travelling and subsistence allowances necessitated by an expanding construction, renewal, and maintenance programme—exclusive of travelling connected with telephone development the cost of which is chargeable to telephone capital.
K—Engineering materials.—Decrease £91,855: reduced purchases of stores are contemplated, stores already in stock being used instead. In addition there will be increased relief from telephone capital funds in respect of stores employed for telephone capital works.
L (3)—Engineering Contract Work.— Increase £10,490: required for additional telegraph, etc., construction.
L (4)—Rent, Rates on Wires, Water, Light, etc.—Increase of £2,220 due to the acquisition of additional premises and to increased consumption of electric power.
M—Telephone Capital Repayments. —Increase £19,727: The provision to be made each year under this sub-head is determined by the Minister for Finance.
Superannuation Allowances, etc.— The increase of £24,580 under N (1) represents an increase in the number of pensioners; increased pensions resulting from improvements in Civil Service pay; and also increased retiring allowances, etc. The decreases of £2,940 under N (2) and of £2,500 under N (3) are due to the deaths of Treaty pensioners.
Civil Aviation and Meteorological Wireless Services.—These services are controlled by the Department of Industry and Commerce, the engineering staff being provided by the Post Office.
Salaries, etc.—Increase £6,100, due to additional labour provision, to increases in pay resulting from consolidation and to normal increments; Q (2) shows an increase of £110,910 due to provision for additional radio construction works; and Q (3) an increase of £795 to meet additional travelling necessitated by an expanding programme.
Appropriations-in-Aid.—Increase of £10,662, due mainly to increased receipts from the Broadcasting Service in respect of work performed for broadcasting by the engineering branch.
The financial position of the three main services—postal, telegraph and telephone—on a commercial basis at the end of 1945-46, the latest year for which complete figures are available, was more favourable than I had hoped for last year. It was as follows:—
Postal Service.—Surplus £32,512 as against a deficit of £20,101 in 1944-45.
Telegraph Service.—Deficit £116,001 as against a deficit of £122,663, and
Telephone Service.—Surplus of £298,004 as against £267,289, leaving a net surplus of £214,515 on the three services, for 1945-46, as compared with £124,525 for the previous year. Because, however, of growing costs, this surplus is now substantially reduced and is likely to fall still further.
In regard to mails, so far as the internal services are concerned, my report must, for reasons of which Deputies are generally aware, unfortunately be unfavourable. Last year I found myself in this connection with a very optimistic outlook. I was hopeful that the substantial improvements in transport services which Córas Iompair Éireann found it possible to introduce during the summer and autumn and which were very beneficial to the mail arrangements would be gradually extended and that this year we might perhaps look forward to a mail organisation that would compare fairly reasonably with the preemergency position. These hopes have, unfortunately, been knocked on the head, for the time being at any rate. So far from being able to make any further improvement in their services, the company, by reason of the fuel emergency, a factor entirely outside their control, have found themselves compelled, since January last, to make drastic and indeed unprecedented curtailments in train running, both goods and passenger, with corresponding detriment to mail conveyance.
I am glad to acknowledge that the company, within the limits of their depleted fuel resources, have done their best to provide for Post Office requirements, but, even so, the services generally are now of a very deteriorated order. Even where trains continue to exist, time-keeping is very unsatisfactory, so much so that in a few instances, e.g. the Dublin-Wexford and the West Clare night mail services, the Department has found it necessary to discontinue the use of the railway and to introduce Departmental motor transport. In other cases road conveyance has been arranged by the company in substitution of discontinued rail services. Bus services are also being utilised for letter mails where available and suitable.
It is not, of course, possible for the Post Office to express any useful opinion as to the probable duration of the existing situation, but I wish to assure the Dáil and the public that the position is being closely and constantly watched and that no opportunity that may offer of effecting improvements will be left unavailed of.
The policy of employing motor transport on rural mail car services, where any material advantage would be gained, continues. Generally speaking, horse transport is now confined to services with limited mileage, mainly station services.
The decision to afford increased frequency of delivery in rural districts which I announced last year has been given effect to in the majority of the areas concerned. The scheme is a troublesome one, the revisions of delivery duties involved proving very difficult in many cases. It is expected that the scheme as a whole will be completed before long.
In September last, the two services on week-days of the Dún Laoghaire and Holyhead Packet were resumed and the second morning delivery in Dublin which had been suspended during the emergency was restored. The packet service has, however, again been curtailed by reason of coal shortages. The question of the conveyance of cross-Channel mails by air has been further discussed with the British administration, but it is not possible to say at this stage when a change in the present transport arrangements is likely to be made. Meantime the surcharge air service continues to operate. The surcharge fee has recently been reduced from 3d. to 2d. for items not exceeding two ounces in weight.
Letter mail services have now been resumed to all countries abroad, although in the case of certain of the Central European countries and Japan they are considerably restricted. Parcel post facilities, restricted in some cases, are again available to all European countries and to most places overseas. The number of foreign parcels despatched from this country last year exceeded 17,000, an increase of 5,000, approximately, on the previous year.
Last year, telegraph traffic showed an increase on the figures for the previous year, with a consequent improvement in the revenue position. The loss on the service of £116,000, approximately, in 1945-46, is estimated at £87,000 for the financial year just concluded. To meet the growth in traffic and to provide for the growing needs of the air service it has been necessary during the past year to install voice-frequency telegraph systems, giving 18 additional channels between Dublin and Limerick and between Dublin and Liverpool, respectively. Extensions from Limerick to the Shannon Airport will be afforded in an underground cable, the laying of which is now nearing completion. With a view to improving the service generally, plans are in hand for the introduction of teleprinter working between Dublin and certain of the larger provincial centres instead of Morse circuits, at present in use.
Telephone traffic, despite all difficulties, continues to grow and in 1946 trunk calls numbered 7,578,000 and local calls 52,000,000, representing increases of 460,000 trunk calls and 4,000,000 local calls over 1945. These increases would be more gratifying if means were available to cater more satisfactorily for the extra traffic which has been added year by year since pre-war days. As I have explained on previous occasions, additional traffic without additional equipment to handle it, necessarily causes deterioration of service.
As we are constantly reminded in regard to other supplies, the war-time scarcities did not end with the end of the war and although we have been able to place contracts for many telephone requirements, deliveries are slow in coming to hand. Owing to a world shortage of non-ferrous metals, some items, particularly those for which lead is required, such as underground cable, are virtually unobtainable. However, we have not by any means given up our efforts to obtain these items, and at present we are making world-wide inquiries as to possible sources of supply.
Notwithstanding many difficulties, it has been found possible in the last year to provide some 3,000 additional circuit miles of trunks, partly on physical wires and partly by use of carrier systems. The number of trunk circuits on the main southern route between Dublin and Cork has recently been increased from 16 to 26. The benefits of this increase have been lost temporarily by the effects of the snowstorms, to which I will refer again, but when fully available, as they will shortly be, delay to calls on this main route will be virtually eliminated.
To cater for further growth of traffic an underground trunk cable will be laid between Dublin and Cork, but this is a big project which will take a few years to complete. We had hoped to double the number of circuits on the main north-western route to Sligo, but the storms of recent months delayed the work, which will not now be completed until late in the year.
On the heavily overloaded cross-Channel route, ten extra circuits have been brought into use, bringing the number to 26, and delays to calls are greatly reduced. In order to eliminate delay completely, a new submarine cable will be laid in co-operation with the British Post Office and, if all goes well, this should be in service early next year.
Improvement in the supply of certain types of switchboard enabled equipment at many smaller exchanges to be extended. Equipment required for big exchanges is of a more complex type, taking longer to manufacture and install. We hope to make headway in the next year in enlarging the equipment of the bigger exchanges, but in many places new buildings or extensive alterations of existing buildings will be needed before sufficient switchboards to meet requirements can be installed.
As Deputies are aware, the long-term plans of telephone development provide for conversion to the automatic system generally. Contracts have already been placed for new automatic exchanges in Cork, Waterford, Bray, Dundalk and 20 smaller towns, but owing to the time needed for manufacture and installation, they are not expected to be in service until next year. Plans are being pushed ahead as rapidly as possible with a view to placing contracts for other exchanges. In most cases, however, new buildings are needed.
Work on the installation of a major extension of Crown Alley automatic exchange in Dublin, for which the contract was placed in July, 1945, was heavily delayed as a result of the Dublin dock strike last year, but we hope to have it completed this summer. In the meantime, the automatic equipment in Dublin is seriously overloaded by the constantly growing traffic, and the standard of service has, therefore, deteriorated. The only way in which the standard can be raised pending installation of additional equipment is by reducing the load and I would appeal to subscribers in Dublin to shorten their telephone conversations and to make only essential calls in the busy forenoon and afternoon hours. A reduction of one-quarter in the duration of conversations would permit of subscribers being given that first-class service to which they were accustomed.
Contracts were placed in November, 1945, for extensions of the suburban automatic exchanges (Terenure, Rathmines, Clontarf and Dún Laoghaire) to cater for additional subscribers and these extensions will also be installed this year.
Some additional equipment was provided in the Dublin Trunk Exchange at Exchequer Street and more will be installed this year. But the equipment available is quite inadequate for the volume of traffic to be handled at the exchange and during busy periods subscribers experience delay in getting an answer when they dial "O" or "31". A modern suite of switchboards is on order, but manufacture and installation of this very complex equipment takes a long time and it is not expected to be in service before 1948. Everything possible will continue to be done to give the best service in the meantime within the limits imposed by lack of equipment.
The position as regards taking on new subscribers has not, I regret to say, improved as much as I would wish. Although we gave service last year to 1,250 new subscribers, applications poured in even faster than telephones could be installed and there are now about 5,000 applications on hands. The principal obstacles to progress in connecting new subscribers have been lack of exchange equipment and shortage of spare circuits in the underground cables in cities and towns. The position as regards such equipment is improving but, owing to the scarcity of lead, to which I have already referred, we are finding the greatest difficulty in obtaining supplies of the lead cable used for subscribers' circuits in towns.
During the year a start was made on the systematic clearance of arrears of waiting applications and at 102 small exchanges where equipment was available all applicants were given service. In Dublin the position was sufficiently good in the Dún Laoghaire, Rathmines and Terenure areas to enable applications for business lines to be met and most of these have now been disposed of. The extension of the Dublin automatic exchanges this year will remove the equipment difficulty so far as Dublin is concerned but, unless supplies of underground cable can be obtained more quickly than appears likely at the moment, it will, I am afraid, be impossible to serve the majority of waiting applicants within the next year.
Telephone service to the Continent and other places abroad as well as radio-telephonic communication with liners on the north-Atlantic route has been restored.
In my statement on the Supplementary Estimate for 1946-47 recently I referred to the severe damage caused by the four successive blizzards this year. It is now estimated that the cost of repairing the damage will be between £100,000 and £120,000. More serious even than this heavy cost in money is the cost in delay to the whole programme work which had been got under way to overtake arrears accumulated during the emergency and to provide for extensive telephone development. While temporary repairs of trunk lines and subscribers' circuits affected by the storms were carried out relatively quickly, I should like to stress that these repairs were only temporary and will have to be made good on a permanent basis later. As a measure of the amount of damage done I may say that if the Department's whole construction staff were employed solely on restoration of storm damage the work would take approximately another four months. In other words the Department's entire construction programme, including connection of new subscribers, provision of call offices, erection of trunk circuits, etc., has been set back by several months. All new construction work was suspended following the first blizzard on 2nd February and it will be some time yet before this suspension can be lifted. As soon as the more urgent trunk repairs have been made permanent, new work will be resumed but it can be carried out only on a very restricted scale until the staff employed on restoring the storm damage complete their work and become available again for new work.
Everything possible will be done by recruiting still further staff to hasten the repair work so that the construction programme may proceed without avoidable delay.
The building industry generally is still severely handicapped by postemergency difficulties. State Departments, local authorities, building societies and other public and private concerns all have formulated extensive post-war constructional schemes. These, subject to the controls imposed by the Department of Industry and Commerce for the regulation of building activity, they contemplate implementing now. While we have secured the necessary permits for urgent Post Office projects, it is unfortunate that the very heavy building programme in connection with the large-scale scheme for development of the telephone service and the improvement of Post Office accommodation generally—the latter held in check for economy reasons during the emergency—should coincide with a period when output must be governed not by our efforts alone but by the overriding capacity of the building industry. Good progress has, however, been made during the past year, and the coming 12 months should see a number of schemes well under way, notably the new post office and telephone exchange in St. Andrew Street, Dublin, the new telephone exchange and post office extension at Cork and the new telephone exchange at Waterford.
In view of the criticism which sometimes arises, I think it well to refer briefly to other important accommodation schemes completed during the past year or in hands at present.
In Dublin: The completion and occupation of the new postmen's district office at Whitehall; the acquisition of extensive premises—32,500 square feet —at Distillery Road for use as an engineering garage and workmen's headquarters; the acquisition of portion of premises in Lower O'Connell Street for the accommodation of certain sections of the headquarters staff previously located in the General Post Office building.
Alterations to Crown Alley exchange in connection with the extended use of the building as an auto exchange.
Adaptation works at Exchequer Street to accommodate temporary trunk positions required to relieve pressure in the main trunk switchroom.
Structural alterations at Amiens Street parcel office to improve the accommodation.
In the Provinces: Erection of new short wave broadcasting station at Moydrum (Athlone). It is expected that building operations will be completed early in May. This does not, of course, mean that the station will be then ready for operation, as the broadcasting equipment will still have to be installed.
Bray: A site for a new automatic exchange has been obtained and the new building is expected to be ready in April, 1948.
Midleton: Public office extended and telephone exchange transferred from private premises to post office.
Dundalk: New automatic exchange building, garage, etc., due for completion within two years.
Killarney: Extension of telephone room completed.
Listowel: Public office extended and telephone accommodation improved.
Mallow: Sorting office accommodation substantially improved.
Cases in which negotiations for the acquisition of sites, premises, etc., are still in progress include: Ballina, Carlow, Cavan, Claremorris, Drogheda, Galway, Kilrush, Kilkenny, Sligo, etc., etc.