This scheme of new addresses is causing considerable inconvenience. Possibly in time the people will become accustomed to it. I am pleased with the report submitted by the Minister in relation to the erection of kiosks and pillar boxes. He told us that 38 telephone kiosks were erected last year and over 22 to date this year. In 1951 23 kiosks wereerected and in 1950 31 kiosks. Something like 93 pillar boxes have been erected during the year. That is a step in the right direction.
The best postal facilities possible should be provided in the rural areas. It is a tremendous advantage to the rural community to have pillar boxes and if a postal van is passing through the district I think arrangements should be made for that van to collect the mail from these pillar boxes, thereby further conveniencing the local people.
One village in my constituency is severely handicapped through lack of adequate telephone facilities. I refer to the village of Cloghan. I have endeavoured to get to the root of the trouble there but so far I have failed to do so. The Gardaí do not seem to be co-operating with the general public. Time and again an appeal has been made here to have a public kiosk erected in the village but we have always been told that such a kiosk would not pay. Recently there was a fire in the district. There was no telephone in the village by means of which one could summon the brigade, and the telephone in the Garda barracks had closed down. The general public do not meet with the courtesy one would expect from the Gardaí.
I appeal to the Minister to examine the position there in view of the fact that the Gardaí are not anxious to facilitate the general public. There was a meeting of the county council recently at which complaints were made about this matter. I think those complaints were forwarded to the Minister. In addition to that Deputy O'Higgins and I have made representations on the matter over a long period. I would be grateful if the Minister could see his way to giving special consideration to the village of Cloghan in connection with telephone facilities. The position as regards telephone facilities in parts of Offaly is far from being perfect.
In the course of his speech the Minister referred to the speeding-up of trunk calls and said that the service generally has been improved. I find that there is very little improvement in the Midlands. There is a substantial delayin calls from the Midlands to Dublin and there is an equally long delay in regard to calls from the Midlands to the South.
The Minister continues in his report that there have been 7,000 more phones. I venture to say that the Minister will not have a similar report to make this time 12 months. The increased charges and the very severe rental charges will prevent many people who are now awaiting telephones from availing of them and steps will be taken by some people to have the telephone withdrawn.
I want to compliment the Minister on the very excellent standard of the new post office in St. Andrew Street. As a post office, it is second to none in Europe. The staff there are very efficient and kind. The manner in which the building is laid out is excellent. Very great credit must go to the architects and officers of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs who have been responsible for the erection of such a fine and spacious building and very great credit must also be given in respect of the service and attention which is rendered by the staff in that post office.
The General Post Office in O'Connell Street, Dublin, has been cleaned and redecorated. I must say that that has not been done before its time. There must have been cobwebs there since 1916. It is regrettable that that very fine building was allowed to go without redecoration and repair for such a long time. Perhaps the Minister or the Secretary of the Department would give very serious attention to the following matter. If you visit the General Post Office at night time you will find that between 8 and 10.30 p.m., there are generally long queues waiting at different counters for attention. Some of the queues are for the purchase of stamps. I have often wondered why the Department do not put at least one or two extra persons on duty there at night. In that way the people would be able to get very quick service and would not be delayed in the rush to post their mail.
In addition, it would relieve somewhat the pressure of work on the remaining officers on duty. Certainly,the service in the General Post Office is excellent. The officers are helpful and extremely obliging. I am sure that if the Minister visits the General Post Office in the late evening he will find long queues waiting for attention and in addition he will see that the officers on duty, though extremely busy, are very anxious to cope with the rush. I appeal to the Minister and to the Secretary of the Department to consider seriously the question of putting an additional man or two on duty in the General Post Office in the late evenings.
Considerable inconvenience is experienced in country districts as a result of the Post Office half-holiday. Nobody is against Post Office people having a half-holiday but the fact is that generally business people who have business to transact at the Post Office come away very depressed on the afternoon of the half-holiday when they find that the building in which they require to do their business is closed. The Minister might consider, where post offices in country towns have their weekly half-holidays, the desirability of issuing licences to people to sell stamps in those towns. I do not know if the Minister has any information in the matter but I should like to know how many licences for the sale of stamps were issued in the past 12 months. The general public experience considerable inconvenience when the post office opens for only five minutes before closing time. That also entails additional inconvenience for those who run the post office.
The general public who require stamps, postal orders, and so forth cannot have these facilities on the post office half day. I wonder if an arrangement could be arrived at whereby the post office assistants would have their half-day on one particular day of the week and the postmaster or postmistress would have his or her half-day on another day of the week? In that way the building would always be open for the general public. These post offices generally close for the half-day on the very day that the people are busy. For that reason, some steps should be taken to ensure that as manypersons as possible who apply for licences to sell stamps will be given these licences.
I am very glad to note that arrangements have been made to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Robert Emmet by the issue of a new stamp. I have raised that matter in the House here time and time again.
I join with Deputy Corish in his reference to the extraordinary size of the Moore and Tóstal stamps. These new commemoration stamps should be the same size as the ordinary small 2½d. stamp to which we have been accustomed in the past. The Thomas Moore stamp and the Tóstal stamp are big, cumbersome and awkward. I trust that the Emmet stamp will not be spoiled and that it will be the ordinary size instead of the ridiculous size which some of our recent stamps have been.
With regard to Post Office staffs in my constituency, it is essential that serious consideration be given to the claims of the clerical officers in the Post Office. I am sure the Minister is actively engaged in consideration of that matter at the present time. They are very good workers and they put all their energy into their work. They are most obliging and extremely helpful but they have a very difficult time and they have a very responsible position. They hold a position of respect, responsibility and trust. Many of those clerical officers are married men with families. Some of them have to pay very big rents and rates while others of them have to pay back the loans which they raised in respect of the purchase of their houses.
I appeal to the Minister to urge on the Minister for Finance that, no matter who else is put at a loss, the clerical officers of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs will receive a substantial increase in pay. Those men have a very good claim. I have received representations from the Post Office Workers' Union of Birr and even from the Post Office Workers' Union of Tullamore. They are clerical workers. Their branches of the union have asked the Minister and us, as Deputies, to forward their case and to direct the attention of the Government to the responsible position which theyhold. They ask that, in recognition of their good service to the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, they be given the benefit of a substantial increase in pay.
Through the Minister, I desire to pay a particular tribute to the chief engineer in the Waterford area. I have seen considerable improvements carried out in my constituency as a result of the operations of the engineering staff in the Waterford area. It is only right that a tribute should be paid to the workmen in the engineering staff in the Waterford area. They worked all during Christmas Eve, and they even worked late, in that part of my constituency which borders Carlow, putting wires underground so that a new scheme of rural electrification could be opened up for Christmas. Representations were made by the E.S.B. to the Department of Posts and Telegraphs to have that work carried out.
In the beginning, the Department did not realise the urgency of the work. They did not realise that the people in the area in question had dismantled their old lighting apparatus and that they were expecting the operation of the rural electrification scheme on Christmas Day. I recall contacting the chief engineer in Waterford who, in turn, contacted the chief engineer in Dublin. The engineering staff worked all day on Christmas Eve. They did a very good job to the entire credit of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs.
In addition to the claims of the clerical workers, I would also ask that the claims of members of the engineering section of the Department of Posts and Telegraphs—many of whom are very far from being overpaid—would receive serious and sympathetic consideration. The Portlaoighise branch of the Irish Post Office Engineering Workers' Union have asked those Deputies who represent Leix-Offaly to direct the serious attention of the Minister to their present plight in view of the high cost of living.
I appeal to the Minister to bear in mind the claims of the Irish Engineering Workers' Union and the Post Office Clerical Association so that not only will they receive favourable considerationbut that payments will be made at increased rates to members of those unions with the least possible delay. It must not be forgotten that these people have received no increase since the last Budget, which is almost 12 months ago, and that since that time the cost of living has gone up by leaps and bounds. For that purpose, I would ask the Minister to see that increases in pay are given to those people.
I understand that the reasons why the Estimate for the Department of Posts and Telegraphs has gone up is because of the increase in the amount paid for petrol for the Post Office vans, increases in rates and also increases in the interest charges on money for Post Office development schemes. Certainly the Minister must take the responsibility because those charges are due to Government policy. The increases in petrol brought about by the last Budget have certainly now reacted as far as the Department of Posts and Telegraphs is concerned. In part of the Minister's speech he deals with rates of interest that have to be paid on moneys for the development schemes of the Department. That, again, is certainly part of the Government's policy which we on this side of the House believe to have been a step in the wrong direction, has caused prices to go up, increased taxation and increased charges upon the services which are now a burden and are unnecessary.