I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £4,912,000 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, 1956, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs.
The net Estimate for 1955-56 amounts to £7,707,000, being a gross total of £8,159,876 less Appropriations-in-Aid of £452,876. The net provision represents an increase of £139,000 on that for 1954-55. 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 30th March, 1955. This Supplementary Estimate was for £228,000, and this amount should be deducted from the increase of £367,000 shown in the Estimates Volume to get the net increase of the 1955-56 Estimate over the previous year's figure. In making comparisons between sub-heads of the Estimate, account has been taken of the provision made by the Supplementary Estimate.
The more substantial variations— those of £10,000 or more—occur on the following sub-heads:—In sub-heads A (1), A (2), A (3) and A (4)—Salaries, Wages and Allowances—the increase, £154,206, is due to the grant of higher wage rates to postmen, an additional weekly pay-day falling within this year and normal incremental increases. In sub-head G (1)—Stores (other than Engineering Materials)—the decrease, £31,000, is attributable to greater use of emergency reserve stores and to a reduction in the number of departmental motor vans due for replacement.
In sub-head G (3)—Manufacture of Stamps, etc.—the decrease, £19,500, is due to an improvement in the stock position of stores covered by this sub-head, and in sub-head I (1)—Salaries, Wages and Allowances (Engineering) the decrease, £132,000, is due to a larger amount of the gross provision being chargeable to telephone capital than last year, offset by normal incremental increases.
In sub-head K — Engineering Materials—the decrease, £42,000, is due to greater use of emergency reserve stores. In sub-head L (2)— Contract Work—the increase, £17,000, is due to greater provision for contract work on telegraph construction, and in sub-head M—Telephone Capital Repayments—there is an increase of £70,228.
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.
In sub-head N (1)—Superannuation Allowances, etc.—the increase, £35,200, is mainly due to (1) higher pensions arising from salary and wage awards, and (2) allowances under the new Superannuation Act, 1954 (No. 14 of 1954). In sub-head O (2)—Civil Aviation and Meteorological Wireless Services—the higher provision, £35,800, is due to the installation of additional equipment to meet international requirements.
Mail services worked satisfactorily during the year. There was some dislocation of rail services, as a result of the floods in December, 1954, but alternative arrangements were made for transport of mails which reduced delay to correspondence to the minimum.
Letter traffic, especially printed paper post, showed an increase during the year, but there was a decrease in parcel traffic, notably to Britain, due probably to the cessation of food rationing there. The raising of the weight limit for parcels in both the inland and foreign post services from 11 lb. to 15 lb. in April, 1954, did not appreciably affect the overall volume of parcel traffic, but the fact that 12 per cent. of foreign parcels now handled come within the extended weight bracket indicates that the additional facility provided for exporting and importing porting goods by post is appreciated. Proposals are under consideration for raising the weight limit in the foreign parcel post service to 22 lb., the limit generally obtaining internationally, and it is expected that it will be found possible to introduce this extension which should prove of great benefit to concerns engaged in the export trade.
Letter traffic last Christmas attained record proportions. Despite widespread publicity aimed at inducing the public to post early, last minute postings were very heavy and this, coupled with the increase in traffic, led to considerable difficulty, especially in Dublin, in effecting delivery before Christmas. Nevertheless, mail posted before the advertised dates was duly delivered, with the exception of a relatively small quantity for one section of Dublin. Special attention is being devoted to the problem of dealing with the growing Christmas traffic in the light of last year's experience.
The re-equipment of the larger offices with modern sorting fittings was completed during the year. The general reorganisation of postal services in rural areas was continued and a daily frequency of delivery and a better standard of service were provided in the head office districts of Tuam, Skibbereen and Sligo. The groundwork on the reorganisation of Bandon, Killarney and Tralee districts was also undertaken and effect will shortly be given to the schemes prepared for these three centres. It is hoped this year to undertake the reorganisation of the services in the head office districts of Castlerea, Enniscorthy, Galway, Limerick and Waterford.
A special postage stamp in the 2d. and 1/3 denominations was issued in July, 1954, to commemorate the centenary of the opening of the Catholic University of Ireland under the rectorship of Dr. (afterwards Cardinal) Newman. In December 8d. and 1/3 denominations of air mail stamps, printed by the recess process, were issued. The designs replaced the 1d. and 3d. air mail issues which were withdrawn.
Telegraph traffic suffered a further drop last year, the number of telegrams handled being 3,161,000 as compared with 3,375,000 during the previous year.
As the House is aware, the telegraph service presents a serious problem, to which I shall refer again later, of high costs of operation, low receipts and declining traffic. The question of reducing expenditure on the service has been the subject of exhaustive investigation and a scheme has been worked out to secure substantial economies in operating costs which constitute the bulk of the expenditure. The scheme is primarily designed to reduce the number of handlings per telegram to a minimum. Already the use of the telephone for direct transmission of telegrams from accepting office to delivery office has been considerably extended and appreciable savings have been secured in this way by elimination of re-transmission costs at intermediate offices.
Hitherto, owing to the extensive use of the morse method of transmission, it has not been possible to adjust costs to declining traffic except within very broad limits. The policy of abolishing morse is, however, now well under way; it has been discontinued at 47 offices leaving about 40 offices still to be dealt with. The change over at these places is held up primarily by lack of suitable lines, but this difficulty will be largely overcome within the next year. Teleprinter equipment has to date been installed at 21 main offices. There will altogether be some 30 such offices for handling long distance telegraph traffic. These offices are, or will be, connected directly to the Central Telegraph Office at Dublin where traffic between the teleprinter offices and traffic between teleprinter offices here and teleprinter offices in Great Britain will be switched, thus cutting out a considerable amount of re-transmission work at Dublin. The question of installing automatic telegraph switching equipment in the Central Telegraph Office for this purpose is at present at an advanced stage of investigation.
During 1954 telegraph facilities were provided at 40 additional sub-offices and the old radio telegraph equipment serving the larger islands was replaced by modern radio telephone equipment. Telephone calls may now be made over the radio links from the islands to subscribers on the mainland.
The growth of the telephone service continued during 1954. Trunk calls totalled 12,780,000, an increase of over 8 per cent. on the 1953 figure. Local calls increased by 1,685,000 to 82,000,000. 6,300 applications for telephone service were received and a total of 6,543 new subscribers' lines were provided. At 31st December there were some 3,600 applicants on the waiting list.
The foregoing figures were, of course, affected by the extensive storm damage during the latter portion of the year which caused very serious disruption of trunk and subscribers' circuits and for a period necessitated virtual suspension of new construction work. Although all interrupted services have long since been restored, the effects of the storm are still being felt in arrears of construction work which accumulated when restoration work had to be undertaken.
In Dublin, telephones are being provided readily in areas where the plant position is good. In many areas in the city and suburbs, however, there are acute underground cable shortages. Until comparatively recently such difficulties could be overcome by local underground relief schemes, but the high connection rate of recent years has made heavy demands on the capacity of the main (as distinct from local) cables and it has been necessary to undertake major recabling schemes affecting most of the Dublin automatic area. Good progress has been made in complete recabling of large blocks in the Crown Alley, Ship Street and Merrion exchange areas and in the north main exchange area which covers the central city area north of the river. In the suburbs major cabling schemes are on the point of completion at Sutton and Dalkey. This work is being extended as rapidly as our skilled engineering staff resources will permit to relieve cable shortages in the remainder of the city proper and the suburbs.
Unfortunately, major underground schemes take a considerable time to complete and it is quite impracticable to cater for more than a few localities at one time—hence long delays in reaching particular areas are unavoidable. I am hopeful, however, that it may be practicable to expedite progress by putting more work out to contract and so supplementing the Department's efforts. In the meantime in order to use to the best advantage what lines are available in difficult areas shared service is being offered to applicants where the plant position permits. Under this arrangement two subscribers share a line to the exchange but they have different telephone numbers and get separate accounts.
Outside of Dublin, arrears of construction work in respect of subscribers' applications and trunk lines were reduced, although progress in this direction was, and is still, affected by the extensive storm damage to which I have already referred. The rural call office scheme for providing telephones in every rural post office has been virtually completed; applications for telephones involving normal work are being cleared on demand or within a few months in most of the larger exchange areas; and long outstanding applications involving abnormal work, which were deferred pending completion of the rural call office scheme, are being cleared roughly in order of year of application.
Fifty-four telephone kiosks were provided in 1954 and at least as many are scheduled for erection this year.
A new automatic exchange linked with the Dublin automatic network was opened in October last at Sutton (serving the Sutton and Howth areas). A similar exchange will be brought into service at Foxrock within the next few months and it is hoped to open automatic exchanges at Whitehall and Walkinstown before the end of the year.
Kildare manual exchange was converted to automatic working and recently small automatic units of new design have been used to provide automatic service at some small exchanges in County Waterford. Cahir manual exchange has now also been converted to automatic working.
A new auto-manual exchange at Mullingar is expected to be ready for service about August next. Automatic exchanges will be provided later in the year at Greystones, Cobh, Celbridge, Lucan and Rath Luirc.
Switchboard equipment was extended during 1954 at 80 exchanges and modern equipment installed at Ennis, Carlow, Bandon and Monaghan. Old switchboard equipment will be replaced by modern equipment this year, it is hoped, at Thurles, Ballina, Tralee and Wexford.
The trunk service was improved by the addition of some 4,600 miles of trunk circuits. Work on the underground cable from Dublin to Mullingar with branches to Athlone and Sligo is proceeding apace. The Dublin-Mullingar circuits are already in service and the branch to Athlone will be finished within a few months. The whole scheme is due to be completed by the middle of next year.
Apart from the routes affected by the cable scheme, the trunk programme for the current year includes provision for thousands of miles of additional circuits throughout the country by installation of multi-channel carrier systems on the longer routes and erection of additional physical circuits on shorter routes. This programme will greatly reduce the number of routes on which calls are now being abnormally delayed.
Continuous service was introduced in 1954 at 11 exchanges where the hours of service were previously restricted and the hours of service were extended by two hours per day at 41 small exchanges. Over 97 per cent. of all subscribers connected to the telephone system now have continuous service. Exchanges where the hours of service are restricted are the very small ones where the extra cost of 24 hour attendance would be out of all proportion to the extra revenue; indeed, the extra cost would in many cases exceed the rentals of the subscribers concerned. The solution of this problem probably lies in the installation of small automatic units connected to the nearest operator-staffed exchange. Hitherto, such units have not been available at suitable costs, but the position has improved and we have now in operation some units of a kind which may meet our requirements in this respect.
New telephone exchange buildings were completed during the year at Whitehall and Foxrock (Dublin) and at Mullingar and Greystones, and others are in course of erection at Limerick and Sligo. New post offices (in which provision is being made to meet the requirements of the telephone service) are also being erected at Drogheda, Kilrush, Rath Luirc and Cootehill. A new branch post office was opened at South Anne Street, Dublin, to replace the Duke Street office. Structural alterations to provide new or improved facilities at existing buildings were carried out or are being put in hand at Cahir, Tralee, Ballina, Ballymote, Monaghan, Kilkenny, Dundalk, Fermoy and Clontarf.
In the present financial year provision has been made for the commencement of the erection of new post offices and telephone exchanges at Galway, Naas, Letterkenny and Athenry, as well as telephone exchanges at Palmerstown and Dundrum, County Dublin. Provision is also being made for the commencement of work on schemes for the alteration and improvement of existing buildings at Loughrea, Roscommon, Bray, Kildare, Carrick-on-Shannon, Carrick-on-Suir, Cork Head Office and Longford. The Commissioners of Public Works are engaged in the preparation of plans of new post offices for Wicklow, Youghal and Droichead Nua.
Good progress continues to be made with the planning of the proposed new combined letter and parcel sorting office for Dublin.
Deposits in the Post Office Savings Bank rose from £14,073,000 in 1953 to £14,517,000 in 1954 and withdrawals from £10,812,000 to £11,101,000, a net surplus of £3,416,000 as compared with £3,261,000 for the previous year. Interest earned during the year is estimated at £1,589,000 and the total amount standing to the credit of depositors on the 31st December, 1954, was approximately £66,772,000.
Deposits during the year by the Trustee Savings Banks amounted to £1,162,500 and withdrawals to £508,000, an increase of £182,000 on deposits and of £46,000 on withdrawals. The balance to credit of the Trustee Savings Banks at the end of the year, including £285,000 for interest, is approximately £10,229,000.
An appreciable amount was withdrawn from the Post Office Savings Bank and 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, 1954, amounted to £77,001,000 compared with £71,057,000 on the same date in 1953.
Business for the year showed a decrease as compared with the previous year. Receipts from sales of certificates amounted to £2,364,000 repayment of principal to £1,318,000 and interest to £445,000. Corresponding figures for 1953 were £3,037,000, £1,375,000 and £517,000. The decrease in sales represents the natural falling off in purchases after the exceptionally high demand in the first and second years of the fifth issue. The decrease in repayments was partly due to smaller investments by Savings Certificate holders in the 4½ per cent. National Loan than in the National Loan floated in 1953, and partly to a fall in the amount of transfers from other issues to the fifth issue.
The amount of principal due to investors at the end of the year stood at £17,980,000 compared with £16,935,000 at the end of 1953.
I am glad to say that on a commercial account basis the deficit on the overall working of the Department has declined and this despite very heavy additional expenditure in respect of salary and wage awards and higher costs generally. For the year 1953-54 the overall deficit was £343,860 and for 1954-55 it is estimated that the deficit will be £200,000 approximately, viz:—postal service deficit, £126,000; telegraph service deficit, £352,500; telephone service profit, £279,300.
While it is satisfactory that the overall financial position shows signs of improving it will be realised from the figures I have just given that the loss on the telegraph service continues to be very heavy. Each year since 1922 the working of this service has resulted in a loss and in recent years the loss has shown a tendency to increase. In 1953-54, the last year for which audited figures are available, expenditure on the telegraph service amounted to £646,000 while revenue only amounted to £295,000. In other words revenue was only 46 per cent. of expenditure. This continuing loss on the telegraphs is a permanent obstacle to the Department's efforts to become self-supporting.
In 1953 the previous Government decided that telegraph charges should be increased and to enable this to be done my predecessor introduced the Telegraph Bill, 1953. In sponsoring this measure he explained fully the need for higher telegraph charges. He indicated, however, that, before fixing revised charges, he proposed to await the report of a departmental committee which he had set up, with the widest terms of reference, to examine the whole problem of the heavy deficit in the working of the service and to make recommendations to improve its financial position.
This committee has concluded a very thorough examination of the telegraph service. In addition to recommendations of an organisational nature, the adoption of which will lead to substantial economies and more efficient working, the committee also recommends that the present telegraph charges should be increased. Some of these charges were fixed as far back as 1920, the others in 1928 and 1937. The committee's report has been considered by the Government which has decided that in view of the continuing loss on the telegraph service, it is essential that telegraph charges should be increased. A White Paper summarising the committee's report and giving details of the increased charges will be published shortly.
In conclusion, I would like to express my appreciation of the zealous service given during the year by the staff of all ranks.