Does the Minister expect that the new directory this year will have better print than the existing one?
Committee on Finance. - Telephone Capital Bill, 1960—Committee and Final Stages.
Question proposed: "That Section 1 stand part of the Bill."
Yes. The next one to be issued will have better print.
And a better backbone.
There is no use in going into the backbone.
Even if we can read it it will be a help.
The Deputy will be able to read it.
I have lost quite a few shillings getting wrong numbers and many other people have rung my number in error all because it is difficult to distinguish one line in the directory from another. Furthermore my directory is falling to pieces.
The Minister would not believe me.
I do believe the Deputy. I have explained here before that the binding of the directory is a problem that is inherent in our situation here. The binding of the telephone directory is contracted for by a firm or firms and is on a competitive tender basis. In Britain it is bound by the Post Office on a machine that is capable of binding and printing a telephone directory. Here we have technical difficulties in the trade and if we are to continue to produce the telephone directory at home we must be satisfied with the best we can get. We would be better advised to tell our subscribers to make the best possible use of the directory and preserve it as far as they possibly can for its life which is one year.
I do not want to take advantage of the Minister's frank and reasonable attitude, but I really do not think we ought to reconcile ourselves to a situation in which we are constrained to say that, unless we are prepared to let the telephone directory fall to flitters in the course of use, we shall have to get it bound abroad. I think there are limits to which we ought to be prepared to go to meet habits and customs which have been long established amongst our own people. There comes a time when we must say to our own people: "If you insist on these habits and customs and refuse to accept modern practices which are universal elsewhere, then we shall have to avail of modern practices elsewhere".
We would much sooner see the modern practices adopted here by our own craftsmen and have the job done here. There ought to be a limit to the period during which we are prepared to say to the person who carries out a job: "We shall take whatever you give us, and suffer in silence". I do not think that is good from the point of view of Irish industry. I do not think it is good from the point of view of the whole atmosphere of enterprise and efficiency which are so necessary if we are to hold our own in the competitive world in which we live.
I fully appreciate that fair notice must be given. We are all aware that businessmen and operatives in certain branches of trade can be excessively conservative, and we must make due allowance for that; but, having made due allowance, I think we ought to fix them with notice that there is a limit to public patience. If it takes time for them to adjust themselves to modern practices, then we shall be prepared to provide that time. But we are not prepared to say indefinitely that procedures are acceptable in this country which would not be acceptable anywhere else.
I suggest to the Minister that the time has come when, he must say to some of the persons concerned in these contracts, whether they be principals or employees, that he finds it difficult to persuade Dáil Éireann to accept a continuation of the present state of affairs and that, unless new procedures are adopted, he will find it impossible to insist on a continuance indefinitely of the unsatisfactory end results about which Deputies, like Deputy Sherwin and myself, feel constrained to complain, not only because of our own personal experience, but also on behalf of constituents who have made representations to us, not of any serious loss, but of sustained inconvenience, which is not something which the patrons of the Post Office should be required to endure indefinitely.
There is just one more point. I do not know whether it comes within the scope of this provision. Would it be possible for the Minister to put some kind of magnifying mirror in each kiosk so that those with poor sight, or those who may have forgotten their glasses, might be assisted in reading the numbers? Such a gadget would be of invaluable assistance.
Question put and agreed to.
Section 2 agreed to.
SECTION 3.
Question proposed: "That Section 3 stand part of the Bill."
What are Sections 3 and 4 of the Telephone Capital Act, 1927?
Section 3 of the Act of 1927 deals with the preparation and auditing of accounts. The section stipulates that:—
Within eight months after the expiration of the financial year ending on the 3lst day of March, 1927, and within eight months after the end of every subsequent financial year in which any sum is issued or extended under the authority of the Telephone Capital Act, 1924... or of this Act or of any future Act with which this section is incorporated, the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs shall cause an account to be prepared in a form to be prescribed by the Minister for Finance showing the money expended and borrowed and the securities created under the authority of those Acts respectively.
The section then details exactly what should be done. It is rather a long section. I shall read it if the Deputy wishes.
No. I am much obliged to the Minister.
Question put and agreed to.
Section 4 agreed to.
Title agreed to.
Bill reported without amendment.
Agreed to take remaining Stages today.
Bill received for final consideration, and passed.
This is a Money Bill within the meaning of Article 22 of the Constitution.