I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £4,740,000 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1955, 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 1953; No. 45 of 1926; No. 14 of 1940 (secs. 30 and 31); No. 14 of 1942 (sec. 23); No. 17 of 1951; 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 be adequately informed of the activities of the Department or to have examined its policies in any detail. In presenting this Estimate, therefore, all I propose to do is to indicate how it compares with the Estimate for 1953/54, to give briefly an explanation of the variation in the amounts provided under the more important sub-heads, and then to give some account of the working of the various services during the past year and to indicate some of the Department's proposed activities for the coming year.
The net Estimate for 1954/55 amounts to £7,340,000, being a gross total of £7,811,348 less Appropriations-in-Aid of £471,348. The net provision represents a decrease of £34,891 on that for 1953/54.
It will be observed that the 1953/54 provision included a sum of £371,560 which was actually provided for in the Vote for Increases in Remuneration and thus nominally transferred. This amount should be divided up and added under the appropriate sub-heads in order to give the figures for 1953/54 which are properly comparable with the sub-head provisions for 1954/ 55. The sub-heads affected and the proportions proper to be added in each case are:—
|
£ |
||
|
A |
1 |
28,230 |
|
A |
2 |
84,510 |
|
A |
3 |
201,130 |
|
A |
4 |
9,700 |
|
I |
1 |
47,280 |
|
Q |
1 |
710 |
Taking account of these amounts the comparisons between 1953/54 and 1954/55 should be adjusted as follows:—
|
1953/54 |
1954/55 |
Increase |
||
|
£ |
£ |
£ |
||
|
A |
1 |
458,061 |
473,600 |
15,539 |
|
A |
2 |
1,132,510 |
1,152,000 |
19,490 |
|
A |
3 |
2,646,130 |
2,696,000 |
49,870 |
|
A |
4 |
153,000 |
157,000 |
4,000 |
|
I |
1 |
626,280 |
649,000 |
22,720 |
|
Q |
1 |
13,110 |
15,300 |
2,190 |
The more substantial variations— those of £10,000 or more—occur on the following sub-heads:—
Sub-heads A (1), A (2), A (3) and A (4)—Salaries, Wages and Allowances:—The increase of £88,899 under these four sub-heads is mainly attributable to the fact that the amount provided in 1953/54 to meet the Civil Service pay award was less than required, to normal increments, to creation of posts, offset by savings on retirements and on suppressed posts.
Sub-head E (1)—Conveyance of Mails by Rail:—The increase of £43,000 is due to the increased cost of conveyance of letter mails and provision for increased payment for the carriage of parcel mails, the latter mainly due to anticipated additional traffic following upon the extension from 11 to 15 lbs., as from the 12th April last, of the maximum weight limit for parcels.
Sub-head E (5)—Conveyance of Mails by Air:—The decrease of £13,000 is due to a reduction in rates for transatlantic air transport and the higher provision which was required in 1953/54 for clearance of United States Post Office accounts in arrear, offset by increased conveyance rates on British Commonwealth air services.
Sub-head G (1)—Stores (other than engineering):— The decrease of £13,400 is due to a reduction in the number of vans due for replacement, offset by increased provision for mail bags.
Sub-head G (3) — Manufacture of Stamps:—The increase of £15,000 is for additional supplies of watermarked paper for postage stamps and for normal requirements of such paper for postal orders, old age pension and children's allowance books, which last year were met from reserve stocks, and for increased purchases of stamped stationery.
Sub-head I (1)—Salaries, Wages and Allowances (Engineering):— The increase of £22,720 is mainly attributable to the fact that the provision for the Civil Service pay award in 1953/54 was less than required, to normal increments, to regrading of posts, offset by savings on retirements and reduced provision for Sunday duty and overtime.
Sub-head K—Engineering Materials: —The decrease of £88,800 is due in the main to reduction in prices and to a reduction in the quantity of stores to be ordered because of an improved delivery position generally.
Sub-head L (3)—Contract Work:— The decrease of £118,200 is mainly due to decreased provision for telephone renewal work, the amount for which in 1953/54 was abnormally high, due to renewal of some of the larger exchanges.
Sub-head M—Telephone Capital Repayments:—Increase of £88,903. Funds for the development of the telephone system are provided under the authority of the Telephone Capital Acts (1924 to 1951) 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 25 years. In consultation with the Minister for Finance provision is made each year under sub-head M 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 T — Appropriations-in-Aid:—Increase £70,663, due to anticipated increased receipts from the sale of obsolete stores, from the Social Insurance and the Savings Bank Funds for administration expenses, and under other miscellaneous heads.
As regards the postal services, mail services worked satisfactorily during the past year and traffic generally remained steady. Air mail traffic, inward and outward, showed an upward trend. A new business reply service was introduced on the 1st July, 1953, and is being availed of to a wide extent by the business community throughout the country. The weight limit in the inland and foreign parcel post was increased from 11 lb. to 15 lb. on 12th April, 1954. This extension should be of particular benefit to business firms engaged in the export trade.
On the 1st March, 1954, the special cheap postage facilities in the inland service for blind persons and in the service to and from Great Britain, which hitherto had been restricted to embossed papers and books, were extended to embrace a wide range of articles specially adapted for the use of the blind.
The general reorganisation of postal services in rural areas was continued during the year and a daily frequency of delivery and a better standard of service were provided in the head office districts of An Uaimh, Ceanannus Mór, Dundalk, Monaghan, Cahir, Clonmel and part of Sligo. Daily frequency was provided on 98 posts on which delivery was previously restricted. The reorganisation of postal services in the head office districts of Tuam, Bandon, Skibbereen, Killarney, Tralee, Castlerea and the remainder of Sligo will, it is hoped, be undertaken this year.
Re-equipment of sorting offices with modern fittings was continued throughout the year and it is expected that all head offices will be supplied with these fittings before the end of 1954.
Six new sub-offices were opened and money order and savings bank facilities were extended to 11 sub-offices. A special postage stamp, in the 3d. and 1/3 denominations, was issued in September, 1953, to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the death of Robert Emmet. The stamp was printed in Ireland by the recess process. A special postage stamp in the 3d. and 5d. denominations was issued on the 24th May, 1954, to commemorate the Marian Year. This stamp also was printed in Ireland by the recess process.
Arrangements have been made to issue a further special stamp in 1954, in the 2d. and 1s. 3d. denominations, to commemorate Cardinal Newman's rectorship of the Catholic University of Ireland, the centenary of which is being celebrated this year. This stamp will be printed in the letterpress process in the Stamping Branch of the Revenue Commissioners.
The telegraph traffic continues to decline. The total number of telegrams handled was 3,477,500 as compared with 3,548,500 during the previous year.
As my predecessor announced last year during the progress through the House of the Telegraph Bill, 1953, a committee is considering the finances and working of the telegraph service in order to make recommendations on policy, rates of charge, organisation, etc., and on any other matters affecting the telegraph service. The report of this committee is awaited. In the meantime, however, the policy of abolishing morse telegraphy has proceeded. In the area roughly south of a line from Dublin to Ennis transmission by morse was replaced by teleprinter in six centres and by telephone at 28 other centres since April, 1953. In this area there now remain only 12 offices still using morse transmission. It is expected that morse will be replaced by telephone at all but two or three of these this year. The cessation of morse in the other half of the country is held up primarily through lack of circuits. This difficulty will, however, be largely overcome on the completion of the new coaxial cable from Dublin to Sligo and Athlone to which reference will be made later. During 1953 telegraph service was extended to 29 sub-post offices.
New radio telephone equipment to replace the existing radio telegraph equipment serving the larger islands off the coast has been received and is being installed. It is already in service to Inishmaan, Inishere, Tory, Gola and Owey Islands and it is hoped that it will be working before the end of the year to the eight other islands at present served by radio telegraph. Progress on these installations has been slower than was anticipated due primarily to the novel nature of the equipment. A considerable amount of experimentation and testing is necessary in each case in order to determine precisely the most suitable positions for the island and mainland terminals of the radio link.
Expansion and improvement of the telephone service continued during 1953. The number of trunk calls made represented an increase of 10.7 per cent. over the 1952 figure; local traffic increased by an estimated 3,000,000-odd calls to a total of over 80,000,000.
Seven thousand six hundred and one new telephone lines were installed as compared with 7,234 in 1952. The total number of waiting applications on the 31st December last was 3,250 representing a substantial reduction on the arrears of 5,000 odd on 31st December, 1952.
In some exchange areas in Dublin where plant and cable conditions are particularly favourable it is now practicable to give service to new applicants with little delay. The exceptionally heavy demand and connection rate in recent years, has, however, reduced the capacity of main underground cables in certain other areas in the city to a relatively narrow margin. This is likely to be the principal bottleneck in the way of providing telephones speedily in Dublin for some time and may reduce appreciably the Dublin installation figures for the current year. Major schemes for the laying of additional ducts and cable are already in hand or in various planning stages and are being pushed ahead as rapidly as the resources of the Department's engineering staff will permit.
In the provinces the clearance of waiting applications has been proceeding apace, but applications involving an abnormal amount of construction work were deferred in favour of early completion of the rural call office scheme. As the House is aware, this scheme has been receiving a substantial measure of priority. Two hundred and twenty-five isolated post offices were provided with telephones in 1953 and of some 900 post offices originally scheduled for attention only 25 now remain without telephones. The work required to provide the remaining call offices is being "staggered" over the remainder of this year to enable the engineers to dispose of their resources to the best advantage and in particular to do more trunk work and to commence the clearance of long deferred applications involving abnormal work.
During last year 53 telephone kiosks were provided. There are at present over 200 in service in Dublin City and suburbs and approximately 250 in the provincial areas. In general, all provincial towns with a population of 1,000 or over have now got kiosks. The question of providing kiosks in towns with smaller populations is kept under continuous review.
Certain improvements in the Telephone Directory were effected in the 1953 edition. It is proposed to improve the directory further in the next issue. It will be in larger and clearer print and will be divided into two sections, one for Dublin City and County and the other for the rest of the telephone system.
In Dublin a new automatic exchange linked with the Dublin automatic network was opened at Clondalkin (serving the Clondalkin and Tallaght areas). Installation of an automatic exchange at Sutton (to serve the Sutton-Howth area) is proceeding and the exchange will be opened towards the end of the year.
Operator trunk dialling, which was introduced between Dublin and Belfast in 1952, was extended last year to the cross-Channel route; Dublin operators now dial directly numbers in the London and Liverpool areas and in the reverse direction British operators dial Dublin numbers. Last summer the number of cross-Channel circuits was substantially increased, and there is now a no-delay service to and from Great Britain.
In the provinces a new auto-manual exchange was opened at Athlone last September. At Nenagh, Muine Bheag, Tramore, Maynooth and Dunboyne manual exchanges were replaced by wholly automatic exchanges. New auto-manual exchange buildings are in course of erection at Limerick, Drogheda and Mullingar.
Switchboard equipment was extended during 1953 at 118 exchanges, and new modern operating equipment installed at Galway, Sligo, Mallow, Killarney, Youghal and Tullamore.
The trunk service was further improved by the addition of some 8,900 miles of trunk circuits to the telephone network and no-delay services were introduced on many routes including the Sligo-Letterkenny, Dublin-Ballina, Dublin-Claremorris and Dublin-Wexford routes.
The proposed underground trunk cable from Dublin to Mullingar with branches to Athlone and Sligo has now passed from the planning to the actual working stage. Trenching work commenced in April. It is hoped to have some long-distance circuits working in this cable by the middle of next year and some circuits between intermediate exchanges earlier still. When this cable is completed a backbone network of underground cables from the capital to the South, West and North, capable of easy expansion to meet any foreseeable traffic demands on the major trunk routes affected, will be available.
It is planned to build about 1,800 miles of overhead physical circuits to shorter routes throughout the country where extra circuits are required. Last year over 1,350 miles of new circuit were provided in this way.
Continuous service was introduced at 13 exchanges where the hours of service were previously restricted; and the hours of service were extended by two hours at 188 small exchanges. Over 96 per cent. of subscribers are now provided with 24-hour service.
The Department's building programme is continuing to make good progress. In the Dublin district, there are at present under construction automatic telephone exchange buildings at Foxrock and Whitehall and work on a major extension of Clontarf automatic telephone exchange has commenced. Premises for a new post office at South Anne Street, Dublin, have been acquired and the necessary adaptation works are in course of execution.
Pending the erection of new permanent district sorting offices to serve the Dundrum/Churchtown and Crumlin/Walkinstown areas of Dublin, a temporary office has recently been provided at Churchtown and it is hoped to provide a similar temporary office in Walkinstown in the near future.
In the provinces, new post offices and/or telephone exchange buildings are under construction at Limerick, Drogheda, Kilrush, Rathluirc, Mullingar and Greystones, and financial provision has been made for the commencement of new buildings at Galway, Sligo, Naas, Cootehill, Athenry and Letterkenny. Structural alterations providing extended accommodation are in progress at Ballina, Tralee, Monaghan and Cahir, and schemes for Kilkenny, Dundalk, Ennis, Carrick-on-Suir, Fermoy, Loughrea, Roscommon, Bray and Ballymote are well advanced.
Considerable progress has been made in the detailed study of postal and customs requirements for the new Central Sorting Office in Dublin and a tentative lay-out plan for the building has recently been received from the architecht assigned to the work by the Commissioners of Public Works.
The position of the Post Office Savings Bank continues to be satisfactory. Deposits rose from £13,323,000 in 1952 to £14,075,000 in 1953 and withdrawals fell from £10,961,000 to £10,815,000, a net surplus of £3,260,000 as compared with £2,362,000 for the previous year. Interest earned during the year is estimated at £1,437,000 and the total amount standing to the credit of depositors on the 31st December, 1953, is approximately £61,767,000.
Deposits during the year by the Trustee Savings Banks amounted to £980,500 and withdrawals to £462,000, an increase of £60,700 on deposits and a decrease of £237,700 on withdrawals. The balance to credit of the Trustees Savings Banks at the end of the year, including £258,000 for interest, is approximately £9,290,000.
An appreciable amount was withdrawn by ordinary depositors and by the Trustee Savings Banks for reinvestment in 4½ per cent. National Loan.
The estimated combined balances, Post Office and Trustee Savings Banks, on the 31st December, 1953, amounted to £71,057,000 as compared with £65,584,000 on the same date in 1952.
In regard to saving certificates, business for the year showed a small decrease as compared with the previous year. Receipts from sales amounted to £3,037,000, repayment of principal to £1,375,000 and interest to £517,000. Corresponding figures for 1952 were £3,370,000, £1,576,000 and £638,000. The decrease in sales was mainly due to the natural decline in purchases as compared with 1952, during which year the 5th issue, a very attractive one, was introduced. The decrease in repayments was principally due to smaller investments by savings certificate holders in the 4½ per cent. National Loan than in the National Loan floated in 1952.
The amount of principal due to investors at the end of the year stood at £16,935,000 compared with £15,272,000 at the end of 1952.
Last year when speaking on the Estimate my predecessor dealt at length with the financial position of the Department. He indicated that on a commercial account basis the working of the Department for the year 1953/54 was estimated to result in a deficit in excess of £700,000. To meet this anticipated loss the former Government decided to increase postal, telephone and telegraph charges so that the Department should be self supporting. Increased postal charges were accordingly introduced in May, 1953, increased telephone charges in July and October, and as already mentioned, the position regarding telegraph charges is being examined by a special committee. These increases would have enabled the Department to meet the anticipated deficit on the over-all working of the Department for 1953/54. As the House is aware, however, increased pay was awarded to the Civil Service as from the 1st of April, 1953, and the cost of that increase to the Department for that year was £420,000. Despite this increased cost the deficit on the over-all working of the Department for the year is now estimated at £312,000 made up as follows: Postal Service, Deficit £142,000; Telegraph Service, Deficit £347,000; Telephone Service, Profit £177,000.
Before concluding, there is one important matter to which I wish to refer particularly and that is the manner in which appointments are made to sub-postmasterships. Deputies will recall that in January, 1951, under the inter-Party Government, a permanent selection board, consisting of senior officers of the Department, was established in connection with the filling of such positions, and given the following special directions:—
"(a) The board shall be responsible for the investigation of the applications and qualifications of all candidates for any of the said positions;
(b) The board shall disqualify for the said positions any candidate who uses or attempts to use political influence in the furtherance of his or her candidature for any of the said positions, and
(c) The board, after an impartial examination of the applications and qualifications of all candidates, for any of the said positions, shall determine the candidate most suitable in each case having regard to the efficiency of the public service."
Since my assumption of office I have found that there has been a departure from this procedure and that the selection board originally constituted has been replaced by another board, which submits to the Minister, not one recommended candidate but three candidates, in order of merit, from which the Minister may select the person he considers most suitable for the appointment. I have found, too, that in connection with these appointments it has been the practice to permit representations to be made by Deputies directly to the Minister, thus bringing these appointments back into the sphere of political pressure. I propose to get away from this revised procedure and to revert to the original procedure under which the selection of the most suitable candidate is left to the board. I propose also to reintroduce the direction that the use or attempted use of political influence in connection with such appointments shall lead to the disqualification of the candidate concerned.
I realise, of course, that the final responsibility for the appointments rests with the Minister.
Finally, despite my short service as Minister, I think that I should express my appreciation of the efficient and zealous manner in which the important services for which the Department is responsible are operated by all ranks of the staff.
