I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £4,384,000 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, 1952, 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.
In view of the very short time since I assumed office Deputies will, I know, not expect me to have made myself adequately informed of the activities of the Department or to have examined its policies. In presenting this Estimate, therefore, I propose to do no more than give an account of the working of the various services during the year 1950-51 and to indicate the Department's proposed activities for the coming year.
The gross Estimate for 1951-52 amounts to £6,980,066 but, allowing for receipts to be appropriated in aid, the net Estimate is for £6,712,000. This represents an increase of £1,204,130 over the net provision for 1950-51. This figure is not that shown in the published Volume of Estimates (page 297) but there is a simple explanation of the difference. Because of the early date by which the Estimates Volume had to be circulated this year, it was not possible to show, as is the custom, the effect of the Post Office Supplementary Estimate approved by the Dáil on the 14th March, 1951. This Supplementary Estimate was for £19,270 and this amount should be deducted from the increase of £1,223,400 shown in the Estimates Volume to get the net increase of the 1951-52 Estimate over the previous year's figure. In making comparisons later between sub-heads of the Estimate, account has been taken of the provision made by the Supplementary Estimate.
Of the net increase of £1,204,130, £806,600 is required for the purchase of reserve stocks of engineering maintenance stores and general postal stores. The balance is required for increased expenditure under several of the various sub-heads.
The more substantial variations on the sub-heads (those of £5,000 or more) occur on the following:—
Sub-heads A (1), A (2) and A (3)— Salaries, Wages and Allowances—The increase of £65,670 under these sub-heads is mainly attributable to increased provision for staff to meet the expansion in Post Office business, for normal incremental increases and for approved rates of payment for the delivery of telegrams.
Sub-head D—Purchase of Sites—The increase of £28,500 is for the acquisition of sites for premises.
Sub-head E (1)—Conveyance of Mails by Rail—Decrease, £16,525. The decrease is mainly due to an expected reduction in our inter-State payments to Great Britain on account of the changed incidence of cross-Channel parcel post traffic. This reduction is offset by increased provision for the carriage of letter mails by rail.
Sub-head E (5)—Conveyance of Mails by Air—Decrease, £33,600. This is due to the fact that heavy arrears of air mail accounts, mainly from the U.S.A., were received and discharged in 1950-51. The reduced provision to be made this year is offset by this Administration's share of the cost of the new cross-Channel night air mail service.
Sub-head G (1)—Stores (other than engineering)—Increase, £75,250. The increased provision is required to meet anticipated heavier expenditure on miscellaneous reserve stores.
Sub-head G (2)—Uniform clothing— Increase, £184,300. The bulk of the increase is for reserve stocks of cloths, serges, cottons, etc.
Sub-head G (3)—Manufacture of Stamps, etc.—Increase, £45,760. For purchase of reserve stocks of watermarked paper used for the production of stamps, postal orders, etc.
Sub-head I (1)—Engineering Establishment—Salaries, Wages and Allowances—Increase, £25,800. This sub-head provides for the total pay of the engineering branch staff, less the cost of staff time devoted to the development of the telephone service (as distinct from its maintenance) which is defrayed from telephone capital funds. The increased provision made is for maintenance and renewal work.
Sub-head K—Engineering Materials —Increase £561,000, due in the main to the purchase of reserve stocks and to higher prices.
Sub-head L (3)—Contract Work (Engineering)—The increase of £66,550 is mainly in respect of anticipated increased payments for work to be undertaken by contractors, including modernisation of the coast wireless stations at Malin Head and Valentia.
Sub-head M—Telephone Capital Repayments—Increase £131,561. Funds for the development of the telephone system are provided under the authority of the Telephone Capital Acts (1924-1946) which authorise the Minister for Finance to issue sums out of the Central Fund for this purpose. Repayment of these funds is made by means of terminable annuities extending over a period not exceeding 20 years. In consultation with the Minister for Finance provision is made each year under this sub-head for the repayment of the instalments of principal and interest on the annuities created. The increased provision in the sub-head is an indication of the continuing expansion of the telephone system.
Sub-head N (1)—Superannuation Allowances, etc.—Increase £5,700, attributable to an increase in the number of pensioners and to greater provision for marriage and death gratuities.
Sub-head Q (2)—Provision and Installation of Equipment, etc.—Increase £7,800. Due to larger provision for airport construction works.
Sub-head T—Appropriations-in-Aid —The decrease of £46,154 here results mainly from the cessation of payments by the British Government in respect of the staffing of the Malin Head and Valentia wireless stations.
The financial position of the Post Office as a whole is not satisfactory. In 1947-48 and 1948-49, there were deficits amounting to £99,611 and £200,612 respectively. At the end of 1949-50, the latest year for which complete figures are available, another deficit resulted, this time amounting to £167,251. In that year the postal services and telephone services combined to show a profit of £115,576 but the heavy loss of £282,827 on telegraphs turned the scales.
The completed revenue and expenditure figures for 1950-51 are not available, but preliminary figures suggest that there will be an even heavier deficit in that year, perhaps of as much as £500,000. Furthermore, as compared with 1950-51 considerably higher wage rates are already in operation in this year (1951-52) for some sections of the Department's staff. The recent Civil Service arbitration award and other proposals for increased pay affecting the Department's staff which are in various stages of examination are obviously exceedingly costly and, if granted, will produce a further deterioration in the financial position. In addition, the Department is laying in heavy stocks against an emergency and these will have to be paid for either out of revenue or borrowed moneys. Increased annuity charges consequent upon capital sums advanced for development also substantially increase the annual outlay.
It is impossible for me at this stage to anticipate the outcome or the full effect of these matters, but it is at least clear that the Department's financial position in the coming year will be considerably worse than last year. In the recent Budget speech the former Minister for Finance dealt with this worsening position and, having drawn attention to the Department's traditional policy of making its services pay for themselves on a commercial basis, indicated that increases in charges have become necessary. The Irish Post Office is not alone in having to take this step. Other administrations have recently been obliged to revise their charges or are preparing to do so. I am aware from information available to me that the former Administration before leaving office had approved and were preparing to introduce certain increased charges with a view to reducing the deficit. I am having these proposals examined in the light of the whole financial position.
The internal mail services generally are working satisfactorily.
A special night air service between Dublin Airport and Ringway, Manchester, was introduced on the 12th March last for the conveyance of a considerable portion of the cross-Channel mails. The service is on a charter basis and is being used for both first and second-class mail (that is all mail except parcel mail) in each direction between here and Great Britain. Over 1,000,000 items weekly are being conveyed by the service. No additional air mail fee is being charged. Cross-Channel correspondence posted up to 6 p.m. at the General Post Office and College Green Branch Office, Dublin, and correspondence included in day mail despatches from the main provincial centres connects with the despatches by the night air service, which leaves Dublin Airport at 8.20 p.m. The mails secure first delivery next morning over the greater portion of Great Britain, including first delivery in London, which represents a very big improvement on the service obtainable by means of the mail steamers. The air service reaches Dublin Airport at 11.45 p.m. on return from Ringway and inward mails received by it secure the first morning deliveries in Dublin and district and day mail delivery in the main provincial centres.
On the 7th May last a further important development in the use of air services was brought about with the introduction of a day air-mail service to Great Britain supplementary to the night mail charter service. First-class mail, that is letters, postcards and letter packets for a large part of Great Britain, is forwarded by morning Aer Lingus planes from Dublin. Postings reaching the Dublin Sorting Office between 6.15 p.m. and 5 a.m. are forwarded in the new despatches, including night mail postings from provincial centres. Letters for London are being delivered on the day of despatch.
The Department is continuing to retain the use of the sea service as the present night air service could not accommodate all the mails available and provision must, of course, be made for occasions on which the air service cannot operate because of adverse conditions, for Saturday night despatches (when no advantage would be gained by having the mails conveyed by air) and for periods of pressure such as are experienced around Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, etc. So far the new service has operated very satisfactorily and a big improvement in the cross-Channel mail service has been effected as a result.
There has been a general growth in the volume of inland letter mail traffic. There was, on the whole, some decline in the volume of parcel post traffic during 1950 but since the beginning of this year an upward trend has been manifest.
The normal operation of the mail services was adversely affected during the year by the occurrence of the partial railway strike over the Córas Iompair Éireann system, which took place on the 18th December last and lasted until the beginning of February of this year. The strike involved the setting up of a complete network of special road services to deal with letter mail traffic. Despite adverse conditions and the unprecedentedly heavy volume of mail handled during the Christmas period, the emergency services worked satisfactorily and the letter mail service was fully and effectively maintained. Because of the strike and the inability of the company to carry parcel traffic it was, unfortunately, necessary to impose a temporary suspension on the acceptance of parcels for a period of a fortnight from the 18th December to the 31st. As from the 1st January, however, the railway company was in a position again to accept parcel post on the trains that were running and the service was restored as from that date. During the period of the rail strike no restriction was, of course, placed on the size of letters or packets which might be sent by letter post, so that the suspension of the parcel post did not involve a complete suspension of the conveyance of sizable articles by post.
So far as the foreign mails are concerned the volume of traffic continues to be high and the air mail services are continuing to be used extensively. Because of the heavily increased conveyance charges for air mail and in order to comply with the requirements of the Universal Postal Convention, to which this country adheres, it was necessary recently to revise the postage rates for air mail and for foreign surface mail. Advantage was taken of this revision to unify the air mail charges on letters and postcards which previously varied from country to country. The second class air mail service which had previously been available only to North America was extended to all overseas destinations as and from the 1st March.
Regarding the rural postal services, the work of revising them with a view to giving daily deliveries on restricted posts and improving the arrivals and despatches of mails generally was continued throughout the year and new services were introduced in the Gorey, Birr, Wicklow and Tullamore districts. The Nenagh postal district has also been revised and it is hoped to introduce new services there at a fairly early date. Revisions or partial revisions of eight other head office districts are receiving attention at present and at least six of these should be implemented during the current financial year.
The arrangements in hands for modernising and improving fittings and equipment in sorting offices throughout the country continued to receive attention during the year. Specially designed conveyor bands were installed at the chief parcel office in Amiens Street, Dublin, and in the Dublin letter office a conveyor band system, mechanical facing table equipment and modern sorting fittings were installed. Improved fittings were also installed in several of the main provincial centres.
In order to facilitate the public, arrangements are being made to extend the introduction of stampvending machines at offices throughout the country and 100 new machines have recently been received.
In September last, a special stamp in three denominations was issued to mark the occasion of the Holy Year. The stamps were produced by the recess process and received favourable comment from the public and philatelists generally. This country also participated in an International Philatelic Exhibition held in Madrid in October, 1950, and the Irish display at the exhibition evoked favourable comment.
During the year, 17 new sub-offices were provided and money order and savings bank facilities were extended to 14 existing sub-offices. Fifty new letter boxes were erected.
It is unfortunate that an increase in the loss on the telegraph service has again to be reported. This is due in the main to the increase in salaries and wages which became operative towards the end of 1948, but also to some decrease which took place in traffic and consequently in revenue. I have been informed by the Department that the telegraph service generally has been under examination in an effort to improve its financial position and efficiency and that, towards that end, the question of an extension of the use of teleprinters to replace morse working is being considered. Provision has been made this year for teleprinters for a number of telegraph circuits. The investigation into the service is being pursued actively but, having regard to the general experience throughout the world of losses on telegraph working, the most that can be expected here is that the loss will be curtailed.
A major difficulty affecting the operation of the telegraph service is that of providing satisfactorily for the delivery of telegrams from small offices where the employment of a regular departmental boy messenger would not be justified. At offices where there are only a few telegrams a day to be delivered it would be uneconomic to provide a messenger to "stand by" for the work and consequently a messenger must be sought by the subpostmaster to deliver each telegram as it arrives. In many districts it is not easy for sub-postmasters to secure the services of casual messengers. It has just been decided to pay higher fees to casual messengers engaged for the delivery of telegrams and this, it is hoped, will improve the position considerably.
A sum of £34,000 is included in the Estimate to obtain transmitting and receiving equipment and to provide for other items of apparatus for the coast radio stations at Malin Head and Valentia. A good deal of the existing equipment is old and out of date and the expenditure is necessary to modernise the station.
Some years ago telegraph or telephone radio communication was established with those islands off the coast on which there was a fair population. The equipment, which depends on wind chargers to keep the batteries charged, is not thoroughly efficient but no better type of apparatus was hitherto available. The laying of a submarine cable would be a fairly formidable job and the cost would be prohibitive. The Department is now, however, studying with interest developments in the provision of more efficient radio apparatus for island requirements and if, as is expected, these developments prove fully successful the newer equipment will be installed where needed. A sum of £7,000 has been provided for this purpose in the Estimate.
The telephone service continues to expand. During 1950 the number of trunk calls was 9,432,000, an increase of 482,000 on the figure for 1949. Local calls increased by 6,000,000 to 68,000,000.
As in the two previous years the Department concentrated its main engineering effort on the installation of telephones, and continued the policy of dealing with the accumulation of applications in bulk by exchange areas. 6,800 lines in all were connected, 4,815 of these being connected to exchanges in Dublin and the other main centres of population and 1,985 to exchanges in smaller towns and villages. The total number of subscribers exchange lines in service on the 31st December last was 52,506 of which 36,069 were in Dublin and other large centres of population and 16,437 in the rest of the country.
For several years past the demand has been steadily growing and 1950 showed a still further increase. The greater the number of telephones in service the greater is the value of the telephone to subscribers and the rapid growth of telephones therefore stimulates demand still further. Every effort will continue not only to keep pace with demand but also to whittle down the arrears of applications on hands. This problem of arrears is one common to all telephone administrations.
During the year progress was made with the extension of the capacity of the Dublin automatic exchanges so as to cater for additional subscribers. Some 100 exchanges throughout the country were extended. At four provincial exchanges, An Uaimh, Drogheda, Dungarvan and Enniscorthy, the exchange switchboards, which were worn out and of an obsolete pattern, were completely replaced by new switchboards of modern design. There now remain only four exchanges where switchboards of this pattern are in use and, as these switchboards are nearing the end of their useful life, it is proposed to replace them within the next year or two.
A small automatic exchange of a type intended for use in rural or semi-rural areas was installed at Castleisland— this being the first provided outside the Dublin district. Since the beginning of this year two further exchanges of the same type have been opened—at Swords, County Dublin, and Mitchelstown, County Cork. This type of exchange gives full automatic service for local calls, i.e., subscribers dial all local calls in the same way as subscribers in Dublin do. They are also enabled to dial directly subscribers connected with other automatic exchanges within a certain radius, at present limited to 12½ miles. This latter facility cannot be availed of at present at Castleisland and Mitchelstown because there are no other automatic exchanges within 12½ miles of either of them. When a subscriber connected to one of these automatic exchanges requires a trunk call he dials "O" and is answered by the operator at the trunk exchange to which his automatic exchange is connected. That operator then sets up the connection required.
It is proposed to install these unit automatic exchanges in towns in which there are expected to be between 100 and 400 subscribers within the next ten to 15 years. There are approximately 120 such places at present. It will, of course, be many years before this full programme can be completed.
It is hoped during the current year to open a main automatic exchange in Dublin to serve central city subscribers. A new automatic and trunk exchange at Dundalk will be opened next month. All Dundalk subscribers will then be enabled to dial their local calls in the same way as Dublin subscribers do.
In pursuance of the policy already announced of giving 24-hour service from the larger exchanges continuous service was introduced at 60 additional exchanges during 1950. At a recent date approximately 93 per cent. of subscribers' lines were connected to continuous service exchanges and another 3 per cent. were being given continuous service by switching their lines through at night to distant exchanges. Of the remaining 4 per cent. which had not continuous service, approximately half had service up to 10 p.m. on week-days and the remainder up to 8 p.m.
Work on the scheme for installing call offices in rural post offices was resumed early in 1950 and some 150 call offices have since been opened. There are still about 700 post offices to be dealt with and, as most of these are in remote areas, heavy construction work is involved in bringing the telephone to them. The scheme will, therefore, take several years to complete. In order to enable the most rapid progress to be made without interfering unduly with other urgent work, the offices to be dealt with are selected mainly on engineering considerations. The programme for the current financial year provides for the installation of 137 call offices. Thirty new kiosks were erected during 1950. It is hoped to erect at least as many during the current year in the areas where the greatest use is likely to be made of them. This is the determining factor in the selection of sites.
A number of additional trunk circuits amounting to a total of 2,700 miles was provided during the year. Owing to the steady increase in trunk traffic in recent years, there is, however, still considerable delay on calls during the busy hours on many routes, and I understand that, owing to the volume of urgent engineering work in sight, it will be some years before such delays can be fully eliminated. As many additional trunk circuits as possible will be erected during the current year and they will be provided on the routes where the need for relief is greatest.
The underground cable from Dublin to Cork via Portlaoighise and Limerick, with spurs from Portlaoighise to Waterford and Athlone, has now been almost completely laid, but testing, and the installation of equipment required for full functioning of the cable will take about another year. In the meantime, short distance circuits have already been brought into use on part of the route between Dublin and Portlaoighise and it is hoped to obtain some circuits in the Mallow-Cork sector shortly. Other short distance circuits will become available gradually over the next year, and it is hoped to have some few long distance circuits to Cork and Limerick within the next six months. When the full number of circuits provided by the cable becomes available on any part of the route, delay over that part is eliminated; and when the whole work is completed within about a year, there should be no delay to calls on any part of the cable route. The laying of a trunk cable from Dublin to the Border will begin next month.
The existing skilled engineering staff of the Department is insufficient in number to enable all phases of telephone development to be proceeded with as quickly as could be wished. In the past three years, the main construction effort has been devoted to installation of new telephones. This concentration on connecting new lines for subscribers has meant that less could be done to improve the trunk service for existing subscribers. I propose to consider carefully whether a somewhat greater proportion of the engineering effort should be devoted to improving the service to existing subscribers, but if this is to be done, it will, it is feared, be for the present at the cost of reducing the rate of connection of new subscribers. The real need is, of course, to ensure that all phases of telephone development can receive adequate attention and I shall consider urgently what it is possible to do to reach this position.
So far as the Department's building activities are concerned, fair progress was made during the past year. Works completed include a new automatic exchange building at Dundalk, a telephone repeater station building at Limerick, a temporary post office at Loughrea and three new automatic exchange buildings at smaller centres. Structural alterations to improve accommodation were carried out at several offices.
The new main telephone exchange building and telephone headquarters at the rere of Hammam Buildings are nearing completion. Other new building works at present in progress include: post office and telephone trunk exchange at St. Andrew Street, Dublin; mechanical transport repair shop and garage at St. John's Road, Dublin; engineering garages and workmen's headquarters at Distillery Road, Dublin; automatic telephone exchange at Mount Merrion, Dublin; automanual exchanges at Waterford and Athlone and reconstruction of Cork head post office.
Work will commence in the current financial year on a number of automatic exchange buildings and on the provision of new post offices and telephone exchanges at Drogheda, Kilrush and Rathluire. Improvement schemes at Ballina, Clonmel, Cahir, Boyle, Clifden and at a number of other offices are also due to commence. Site difficulties have held up a number of schemes at such places as Galway, Letterkenny and Wicklow, where new buildings are proposed, but relief measures are being taken where practicable and the difficulties referred to are being disposed of as expeditiously as possible.
Plans for the provision of a central sorting office in Dublin had to be extensively revised in the light of the substantial growth in postal traffic in recent years. Re-examination revealed that the increased demands could not be met, as had been contemplated, on the site of the existing sorting office in Pearse Street and that a new site would have to be obtained. Inquiries to this end were instituted and negotiations for the acquisition of a suitable site are now nearing completion. In view of the urgent need to replace the existing inadequate sorting accommodation, everything possible will be done to expedite the planning work and commencement of building operations on the new site.
The Post Office Savings Bank as a medium for savings continues to be popular with the general public. Deposits for the year totalled £11,286,000, exceeding withdrawals by £3,094,000. The amount, including interest, to credit of depositors at 31st December, 1950, was £48,133,000 as compared with £43,920,000 at the end of 1949. The amount remaining to the credit of depositors at the end of various three-year periods may be of interest to Deputies. The amount in 1939 was £10,650,739 and had increased by 1942 to £16,742,875, an increase of £6,092,136. By 1945, the amount was £32,653,360, an increase of £15,910,485. By 1948, the total was £38,981,315, an increase of £6,327,955, and in December, 1950, the amount had increased by £9,151,685 to £48,133,000.
The total amount invested in Savings Certificates during the year ended 31st December, 1950, was £1,409,000 as compared with £1,440,000 in the preceding 12 months. Withdrawals, principal and interest, amounted to £1,355,000 as against £1,217,000 in 1949. The amount remaining invested at the end of 1950, exclusive of interest, was £13,012,000 as compared with £12,561,000 at the end of 1949.
The amounts remaining invested at the end of various three-year periods were as follows:—1939, £7,717,487; 1942, £8,220,571, an increase over 1939 of £503,084; 1945, £11,053,620, an increase over 1942 of £2,833,049; 1948, £11,979,488, an increase over 1945 of £925,868, and 1950, £13,012,000, an increase over 1948 of £1,032,512.
The figures for 1948-1950, while showing improvement over some previous periods, are short of what would be desirable under present economic conditions.
Under the scheme for conciliation and arbitration for the Civil Service a departmental conciliation council was set up in the Post Office. It held its first meeting in May, 1950, and since then a number of important claims by staff associations have been submitted to it. The meetings of the council are characterised by a spirit of goodwill and a readiness to examine both sides of a case with an open mind, and the existence of this spirit augurs well for the future of conciliation machinery in the Department.
The Department's policy of keeping under review its organisation and methods of operating was continued during the year with satisfactory results. I should like to assure the staff of all grades that the zealous and efficient service which, the Department assures me, has been given during the year is greatly appreciated.
In concluding my observations, I should point out that the plans for telephone development were being prepared in the years before 1948 and were one of the objectives regarded as of vital national importance by the Government of that day. These plans are now being implemented and the Minister who held office before me, it is only fair to say, gave active encouragement to this work.
