I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £218,085 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 Salaries and other Expenses in connection with Wireless Broadcasting (No. 45 of 1926), including Public Concerts.
The Estimate for Wireless Broadcasting for the financial year 1947-48 is £327,085, an increase of £128,985 on the previous year. The principal increases are in sub-head A (salaries and wages) and sub-head F (engineering plant, equipment, etc.).
Sub-head A, £97,205. Increase, £55,245. The substantial increase in this sub-head is due to the extent of roughly £44,000, to the organisation being set up for the high power short-wave station. The increase in the sub-head also includes a sum of about £8,300 for higher staff payments arising out of the consolidation of Civil Service salaries. The balance is due to staff additions which may be attributed primarily to the home broadcasting service and to provision for increments, etc.
Sub-head F, £168,895. Increase, £69,895. Of the total amount in the sub-head a sum of £154,795 (including £46,575 customs duty) is for the provision of the transmitter and aerial systems for the new short-wave station at Athlone and for the purchase of equipment including motor-vans, in connection with the recording of programme material. The balance of £14,100 is to cover the cost of ordinary maintenance and renewals at all the stations. I should mention that a sum of £63,000 plus the appropriate customs duty, included in the sub-head, is a re-Vote from the last financial year in respect of part of the equipment for the short-wave station ordered but not received in that year.
The increase of £1,050 in sub-head D (travelling expenses) and the increase of £1,425 in sub-head E (light, power, etc.) are also mainly attributable to expenses to be incurred in connection with the new station.
Sub-head B (Cost of daily programmes). Increase, £1,200. The provision under this sub-head would ordinarily have shown a considerable reduction owing to the transfer of expenditure from that sub-head to sub-head A to provide for a company of actors and producers attached permanently to the Broadcasting Service who will to an extent replace artists casually employed under the present procedure. The reduction is, however, offset by extra provision, mainly for outside artists' fees for the overseas programmes and for the cost of an agency service for the supply of news introduced at the end of last year. The increases in the other sub-heads in the Estimate are of a casual nature.
The revenue from wireless licence fees in the financial year just ended was approximately £112,500 and from advertising programmes £41,100, making a total of £153,600, an increase of £29,000 on the revenue for the previous year. The increase is partly due to higher revenue from licence fees and partly to an increase in the time rented for advertising programmes. In the present financial year the licence revenue is expected to reach £115,500, and the receipts from advertising programmes £40,000, that is, the total revenue is estimated at £155,500. The total expenditure on the Vote for Wireless Broadcasting and on other Votes for services performed for broadcasting is estimated at £372,499. The revenue is, therefore, expected to fall short of expenditure by almost £217,000. About £163,000 of the total anticipated expenditure, however, will be incurred on the erection of buildings and the provision of engineering equipment for the new short-wave station and is of a non-recurrent nature.
Our plans for the expansion of the broadcasting service are by now fairly well known in general outline. The short-wave service will aim at giving Irish people and other sympathetic listeners abroad the best music and speech programmes the country can provide and will broadcast news bulletins regularly so as to present a continuous picture of Irish events and activities. The building which will house the new transmitter is approaching completion and the installation of the transmitter and aerial system designed for the initial transmissions towards North America will, it is hoped, be completed towards the end of the year. The planning of the overseas programmes will be no easy task, but it will be greatly facilitated by building the short-wave organisation into the existing programme organisation rather than as an entirely separate undertaking. Incidentally, I might mention that while the additional programme staff which is about to be engaged and the other improvements to be effected have been authorised in connection with the new station, both the home and overseas programmes will have the benefit of the higher standard it is hoped to achieve from the larger and better organisation. Indeed, the improvements generally which are proposed would be very desirable for the home service even if the inauguration of an overseas service had not been embarked upon.
I shall now refer briefly to the details of the expansion it is intended to effect in the broadcasting organisation. It is proposed to convert the present orchestra of 40 members into one of 62, and to establish a second orchestra of 22 players. The first orchestra will ordinarily play symphony music while the second will be used for the lighter type of musical programmes. Occasionally, however, all these instrumentalists will be brought together to form a sort of national symphony orchestra capable of giving an adequate performance of the most important works and of works outside the capacity of the largest orchestral combinations we have hitherto been able to assemble. Two new conductor positions have been created and to fill one of them — for the larger orchestra— we have engaged the services of the well-known French conductor, Jean Martinon, for a period of six months. M. Martinon is already known to the Dublin public. He directed one of the courses at the summer School of Music held last year under the auspices of the Minister for Education and he conducted two of our symphony concerts with distinction. Negotiations are in progress to secure the services of conductors from other countries in Europe when M. Martinon's period with us has expired. The music director of the station, Captain Michael Bowles, who has done so much for music in this country, and for broadcasting in particular, is going abroad for about two years to gain continental experience and during his absence a temporary music director, appointed by public competition, will function. We have also advertised for a conductor for the second orchestra as well as for the orchestra members we need to complete the two combinations.
I should mention here that while we would like to fill all the music posts with our own musicians we feel that in view of the very high standard we are aiming at it will be necessary for us to strengthen the orchestral combination by the addition of some members from outside the country. Music cannot, of course, be confined within national boundaries and while we hope that we will be able to provide the bulk of our orchestra members at home I am confident that the introduction of a number of first-class performers from abroad will be for the benefit of music generally in this country.
A repertory company of full-time actors is being recruited. Up to the present the station has depended on the part-time services of professional and amateur actors. They did very good work for us but their energies and their time for rehearsals and performances had to be divided between their broadcasting and other interests. The result of this divided allegiance could not have been expected to be quite as satisfactory as if the players had been available entirely for broadcasting work. The employment of a full-time company whose whole outlook will be concentrated on broadcasting should be much more satisfactory for the service and for the actors themselves. There will, of course, be still an amount of part-time work available for actors outside the station company. For the same general reason we are about to engage some full-time producers instead of employing people to do individual productions as at present. We are also looking for a number of staff script writers to ensure the necessary flow of material, particularly for the short wave transmissions.
Up to now it has been somewhat difficult to get programmes of interest from local sources in sufficient variety and volume as they had to be taken by line relays which are expensive and not easy to arrange especially in those days of exceptional difficulties in regard to telephone communication. Up-to-date recording equipment is, however, now being provided in the studios as well as mobile recording equipment which will make it possible to take material from various parts of the country for use in documentary and other programmes of a local character. Outside broadcasts officers will be employed to organise, rehearse, record and edit these programmes and particular attention will be paid to the Gaeltacht areas. When all these improvements and staff additions have been made it is confidently hoped that a better all-round service will be provided for home listeners as well as for listeners to the overseas programmes.
What I have so far been saying relates to an expansion, the effects of which will be seen clearly enough when the new organisation has been in operation for a little time, but Deputies will like me to make some reference to the work of the past year. I think the standard to which I adverted in the statement on the 1946-47 Estimates has been well maintained and in many cases improved upon. The symphony concerts in the Capitol Theatre have continued to be supported by a large and obviously enthusiastic public and there were several notable broadcasts from the studios by eminent musicians. The high level of the work of the orchestra has evoked very favourable public comment and there is little doubt that the increasing of the orchestra which is now in train will enable a still higher standard of performance to be achieved. Local musical activity was consistently encouraged by the taking of relays of concerts from a number of centres and there are gratifying signs that the amount of such activity is on the increase.
The encouragement of the study of the Irish language continues. The elementary and the more advanced courses of the "Listen and Learn" series of lessons were repeated throughout the autumn and winter on Tuesdays and Fridays of each week. In addition, a series entitled "Conus Adéarfá", designed to assist accomplished speakers and advanced students to express various ideas in the neatest Irish, has been broadcast over a long period, together with a rich variety of plays in Irish, talks, readings and discussions. In fact, there is hardly a feature broadcast in English which has not had its counterpart in Irish.
Programmes in English covered a very wide field. There can be few subjects of interest or importance which were not covered in many ways. It would be out of place here to go into the details of programmes, but the fact that it is possible to group the broadcasts in English under talks, short stories, discussions, anniversary programmes, competitions, documentary features, dramatisations, poetry, interviews and foreign news-letters will indicate their variety.
I should like particularly to refer to improvements which have been made in the news service. The news staff has been increased and a system of local correspondents throughout the country is being built up with the aim of increasing the content in the bulletin of news of direct Irish and local interest. In addition, an arrangement was made last year with an international news agency under which a full coverage of world news, including news on matters of particular interest to this country, is made available throughout each day. Such a service has been contemplated for some time, but the difficulties of the international situation made it necessary to defer it until fairly normal conditions had returned.
The Broadcasting Advisory Committee met at intervals over the year and provided, by its discussions, much assistance and guidance in the matter of programmes.
Before I conclude I wish to make a brief reference to our broadcasting staff. Mr. Séamus Ó Braonain, the Director, will be retiring in the immediate future. I should like to express my appreciation of the excellent services he has rendered to broadcasting in a position which is exacting at all times, and has been particularly so during the period of the emergency. In regard to the broadcasting staff as a whole, I should like to say that they are expected to produce programmes which bear favourable comparison with those of broadcasting organisations which have immense resources both for the provision of staff and the payment of fees. The fact that our programmes are kept to a reasonably high standard with the organisation which our resources permit is due in great part to the team work and energy displayed by the broadcasting personnel, and I wish to thank them one and all for their co-operation during the past years.
