I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £325,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1962, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs and of certain other Services administered by that Office, and for payment of Grants-in-Aid.
When I was introducing the Estimate for my Department in May last I said that it contained no provision for payments in respect of television licence fees or for any change in the sound licence fee. I also said that extra revenue from licence fees could be made available to the Broadcasting Authority only by Vote of this House and that if the television service opened towards the end of this year a Supplementary Estimate would be needed to pay over the proceeds of a television licence fee.
It will be remembered that provision was made in the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960, that the Authority might be paid in respect of each of the first five years of its existence:
(a) a grant equal to the total of the receipts in that year from Broadcasting licence fees less the expenses incurred in collecting those fees and in preventing interference with reception
and
(b) a further grant subject to a limit of £500,000 for the five years.
The latter grant was intended to help the Sound Broadcasting Service to balance income and expenditure during the initial years after the change-over from direct State operation. Already £278,400 of the total subsidy of £500,000 which may be paid in respect of the period ending 31st March, 1965, has been made available to the Authority.
As Deputies are aware the Broadcasting Authority announced several months ago that they expected to commence a regular television service from the Kippure transmitter about the end of December. It was accordingly decided that holders of television sets would be required to obtain a special television licence as from the 1st January, 1962, and as announced by my Department on the 11th August last this special licence will cover sound as well as television and the fee will be £4 a year.
Costs of sound broadcasting have been rising and it was therefore necessary to increase the fee for an ordinary radio licence from the figure of 17s. 6d. which was fixed in 1953 to £1 as from 1st September last. The extra receipts from this source will not make the Sound Broadcasting Service self-supporting but they will help to keep down the draw on the subsidy provision.
The purpose of the present Supplementary Estimate is to enable my Department to pay over to the Broadcasting Authority the television licence fees which will be collected during the current financial year together with the additional sum resulting from the increase in sound licence fees less, of course, the estimated cost of collection in both cases.
The Supplementary Estimate will not result in any extra charge on the taxpayer.
Accurate figures of receipts from licence fees and expenses of collection for the current year will not be available until after the 31st March. Accordingly the payment to the Authority under Sub-Head K 1 will have to be an estimated figure and an adjustment will have to be made in a subsequent year when precise figures are available.
I have already referred to the special £4 television licence which will come into operation on 1st January next. A new form of licence costing £1 per annum for Sound Broadcasting will be introduced as from the same date but existing licences will continue in force in respect of Radio sets only until the normal date of expiry. Television licences and the new Sound licences will be on sale at all Post Offices as from the 1st January, 1962. Persons who buy a television licence for the first time will normally possess a current licence for sound reception and it has been arranged that such licences may be used in part payment for television licences. Any person who hands in his existing sound licence at the time of purchase will be allowed a reduction in respect of each month or part of a month which his licence has to run to the date of expiry.
The reduction will be at the rate of 1s. 6d. or 1s. 8d. per month depending upon whether the unexpired licence costs 17s. 6d. or £1. For example a person who buys a television licence on 1st January and who surrenders a sound licence which is due to expire on 31st October, 1962 will pay a net £3 3s. 4d. If a person pays the full £4 fee for a television licence at the time of purchase it will be possible for him to get a cash refund calculated in the same manner but in that case he will have to make a special application to the Head Postmaster of his district and enclose his old unexpired licence. The more convenient course is to hand up the unexpired sound licence when one is purchasing a Television licence.
When speaking on the Estimate in May last, I mentioned that I had invited certain persons to become members of the Interference Advisory Committee which is provided for in the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960. The Committee met for the first time in June and it has since been giving the most careful study to the ways and means by which interference with reception may be brought within tolerable limits. It is a very big question. The sources giving rise to interference are practically endless and it is my intention to limit those sources in so far as it will come within my power to do so. I understand from the Committee that it should be possible to introduce the first set of regulations towards the end of this year. Deputies will welcome this positive step but I would emphasise that in making provision for reducing interference the problem is so extensive that progress will necessarily be slow.
Side by side with the day to day operation of the Sound Broadcasting Service, Radio Éireann has been pressing ahead with all possible speed on the establishment and development of the Television Service. I shall not go into any details regarding the work involved but I would like to say that the progress made has been quite remarkable and augurs well for the future of Irish television.
My responsibility for the services Radio Éireann provides is limited to matters specified in the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960, and I shall not, therefore, treat of matters which are now solely the concern of the Authority. In this connection I would again ask Deputies seeking information on questions falling within the competence of the Broadcasting Authority to seek that information direct from the Authority. I am sure that they will find the Director General most anxious to help them.