I thoroughly endorse what Deputy Cummins has said and I think he presents to the House a facet of this problem which only too frequently escapes us. Institutions like the Royal Irish Academy of Music sometimes do not realise the volume of goodwill that exists in the Oireachtas for their work. Perhaps that is our fault if we do not sufficiently often give expression to our appreciation of the work they do. I often think that these learned bodies sometimes labour unnecessarily under heavy handicaps because they do not make their very modest needs more generally known. I am interested to hear Deputy Cummins speak of the unequal battle proceeding between Ludwig von Beethoven and Fats Waller. I have the kind of feeling that, in the long run, Beethoven will come out on top. I do not altogether agree with Deputy Cummins when he says the pop music of Tin Pan Alley is easy to listen to. I find it quite an ordeal. Though it is not infrequently imposed upon me by the younger generation, it not infrequently places a considerable strain on domestic peace in order that the younger generation should have free access to what pleases its ear, as I claim to have to Verdi, Puccini and even to Bellini, for to so oldfashioned a theme I plead guilty to having a lingering regard.
I agree with Deputy Cummins but not for the reason he gave. He would seem to suggest that classical music is fighting a losing battle with jazz. I do not think it is. I think it is perhaps a mistake to suggest there is that antithesis between the two because probably our grandchildren will find classical qualities in what sounds to us today cacaphonic, if that is the correct word. However, it is true that tastes change and appreciations develop.
I think there is already emerging a certain classical element, even in jazz, to which perhaps my ear and even so young and fresh an ear as that of Deputy Cummins have not yet fully adjusted themselves. I rather imagine he would find in the Royal Irish Academy of Music a full understanding and appreciation of new forms of music on which I have no doubt the Royal Irish Academy of Music will not turn their back or ignore.
I want to direct the attention of the Minister especially to an aspect of this problem to which the observations of Deputy Cummins call to mind. I think it is true that these learned bodies sometimes are too backward in making their needs known. Ministers so rarely encounter outside bodies dependent on public funds who are other than clamorous that they rather tend to assume that any body which is not perenially beating at their doors must be getting enough and that if it were not getting enough it would shout about it. The plain fact is that there are some venerable institutions in this country doing very valuable work, like the Royal Irish Academy of Music or like the Royal Irish Academy itself, who have inherited an old tradition of self-restraint and who feel that if the grant is somewhat larger than it used to be they have a very grave obligation to restrict their activity so that they can bring it within the amount of the present grant that they are receiving. These people are not intimately in touch with the changing value of money and with considerations of that kind.
I suggest to the Minister that, exercising the most scrupulous discretion, he has an obligation as Minister for Education to distinguish between the kinds of bodies who would make their needs known to him very fully and those which would allow their work to be retarded through a reluctance to urge a need for extra money. I think it is true to say that at the present moment the Royal Irish Academy Irish-English Dictionary is held up for the want of quite a trivial sum. I think one letter is prepared for the printer but has been left aside because they have not got the money to make the appropriate contract with the printer to get the letter printed. I have very little doubt that if the council of the Academy came to the Minister for Education and said, for instance: "We require authority to commit ourselves to the tune of another £5,000 to permit the printer to proceed with the work that is completed and ready for printing" the Minister would say: "Go ahead." However, they have a traditional reluctance, when they feel that the grant provided by the Minister is generous, to ask for more. I am suggesting that where we are dealing with bodies such as the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Royal Irish Academy, and certain other conservative and scrupulous bodies of that kind, the Minister has an obligation from time to time to query them as to whether their work is proceeding satisfactorily and as to whether any important work is being held up through financial difficulty.
It may be that occassions will arise when the Minister will be obliged to say: "We shall have to wait to get that done." I think that not infrequently he will find that by the provision of a very modest sum, important work could be pressed forward and, in fact, that people are laying work aside, and that important work is being delayed, for financial considerations which experienced financial administrators recognise as being quite inadequate to justify the delay.
What I am trying to say is not difficult to express. I seek to pay a tribute to their high-minded reluctance to constitute themselves a charge on the public funds but they sometimes carry that too far. It is so rare and precious a quality that I would not wish to see them changed but I think it puts a corresponding obligation on the Minister for Education—instead of barring and bolting the door as most Ministers have to do against people looking for additional grants—in the case of these bodies to inquire of them from time to time: "How is your work getting on? Is it being held up through shortage of money? If it is being held up, let me know what you want and I shall see if we can find it in order to permit of the kind of work you are doing proceeding without interruption."
I suppose I have a certain sympathy with the Minister in his difficulty with regard to subhead A (3). He says he has not access to the Museum now. Possibly he has somewhere in his brief some further details. It is an embarrassment to us all when the subhead is produced and when we ask for further particulars if we find the Minister is without the detailed information which the House is entitled to have if we seek it. Perhaps a further perusal of the material available to the Minister would enable him to give us a more detailed explanation of subhead A (3) when he comes to conclude.
