I move:
That a sum not exceeding £8,582,600 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, 1964, 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.
The net Estimate of £13,503,600 for my Department is shown in the Estimates volume as approximately £582,000 greater than last year's. When, however, the recent Supplementary Estimate of £133,000 is taken into account, the actual increase is approximately £449,000, and of that amount £62,000 is in respect of licence fee revenue payable to Radio Éireann. Accordingly, the net increase for the services directly provided by my Department is £387,000, and that is attributable mainly to the continuing expansion of the telephone service.
The subheads with substantial variations are:—subhead A—salaries, wages and allowances—where the increase over 1962/63, including £132,700 in the Supplementary Estimate, is £162,000. It is mainly for additional staff and overtime for telephone construction and maintenance work, and for additional telephonists. On the postal side extra provision is necessary also partly because of the shorter working week for postmen, and partly because of the growth of delivery work in Dublin.
The increase over 1962/63 for subhead C—Accommodation and Building Charges—including £16,700 in the Supplementary Estimate, is £155,500, and it is due principally to the building works forming part of the expanded telephone development programme. Provision is also made for heavier consumption of electricity. Incidentally, some charges, amounting to approximately £10,000, connected with the radio services at airports, which were formerly borne on this subhead, have been transferred to the Vote for Transport and Power.
The increase over 1962-63 for subhead F — Engineering Stores and Equipment, including £116,600 in the Supplementary Estimate, is £628,000. The major portion of the increase is to meet the requirements of the expanded telephone development programme, both for the direct purchase of stores and for payments to contractors. In regard to subhead G — Telephone Capital Repayments — continuing heavy investment in the development of the telephone service is responsible for the increase of £251,000 in the annuities for the repayment of the capital advanced.
Subhead K1—Grant Equivalent to Net Receipts from Broadcasting Licence Fees (Grant-in-Aid)—showing an increase of £140,000, transfers to Radio Éireann the net revenue from television and sound licences.
The amount of £71,600 for subhead K2—Additional Grant Under Section 22 (1) of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960 (Grant-in-Aid)— is the full amount remaining out of the subsidy of £500,000 permissible under the Act. Under subhead T— Appropriations in Aid—the increase over 1962-63, allowing for the additional £196,000 provided in the Supplementary Estimate, is approximately £868,000. Recovery from Telephone Capital funds in respect of the enlarged telephone development programme is mainly responsible.
The volume of letter traffic in 1962 was about the same as in the previous year but there was a reduction of approximately 3½ per cent in parcel traffic. Within this general picture, there were some considerable increases under particular headings mostly on the foreign side; for example, outgoing letter mail to Europe increased by 12 per cent, second class air mail (that is, printed papers, newspapers, etc.) to overseas destinations by 50 per cent and outgoing air mail parcels by 23 per cent. It will be noted that these increases were all in airborne traffic.
During the year a direct night air mail service from Dublin to London was brought into operation to supplement the Dublin-Manchester service. In addition, eleven extra direct despatches of air mail to European cities—nine from Shannon Airport and two from Dublin—were introduced. The public response to the "Post Early" campaign before Christmas was good and although traffic again reached a record level it was disposed of satisfactorily. I am glad to report a continuing increase in the use of postal address numbers on items delivered in the Dublin area. Over 57 per cent of such items now bear postal numbers.
A special "Europa" postage stamp was issued in September, 1962, simultaneously with other members of the European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrations. Another special stamp has been put on sale during the past month to further the "Freedom from Hunger Campaign" organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. In September next there will be a further "Europa" stamp issue.
There was a further decrease in the number of telegrams dealt with during the year. In all, the estimated number of telegrams handled was 1,682,000— a decline of over 5 per cent on the number for 1962/63 as compared with last year's decline of one per cent. It occurred mostly in traffic with Great Britain and to a lesser extent in internal traffic. With the development of other forms of communication it is only to be expected that this decline will continue.
The telex service continues to expand and the receipts from telex subscribers now constitutes one-fifth of the total telegraph revenue. There are now 189 subscribers' installations as compared with 157 last year. During the year internal telex calls amounted to 143,000 —an increase of 12 per cent while calls to Great Britain also increased by the same percentage.
During the year the number of countries with which we have telex service was increased by nine, making 71 countries in all.
I referred last year to the conversion of the telex system to automatic working. Owing to delays in the delivery of the necessary equipment it now looks as if it may not be possible to make the change until about the end of the year. When the change is made the service will be particularly attractive, as subscribers will be able to dial calls not only to other Irish subscribers but also to subscribers in Great Britain and other countries which have an automatic network. It is intended that, as in the case of telephone trunk calls dialled direct by subscribers, such calls will not be subject to the three minute minimum charge which at present applies to calls obtained through a Post Office operator.
It is expected that the loss on the combined telegraph and telex services in the year 1962/63 will be of the order of £185,000 or about £10,000 less than in 1961/62.
The telephone service continued to expand in 1962. Call traffic was greater, by about 6½ million local and trunk calls, than in the previous year.
The trunk network was extended substantially, a further 13,000 miles of circuits being added. The additional circuits were provided mostly in underground and aerial cables and in the form of microwave radio circuits.
Approximately 14,800 new subscribers' exchange lines were installed; nine new automatic exchanges were opened; the equipment at 152 exchanges was extended and 69 extra telephone kiosks were provided.
The subscriber trunk dialling facility was extended to a further 25 exchanges, and it is now available to about 70 per cent of all subscribers in the country. It is intended to introduce subscriber trunk dialling at most of the remaining automatic exchanges within the next year or two.
The continued increase in call traffic made it necessary to devote a high proportion of our resources to the expansion of the trunk system. During the year additional circuits were provided on the Sligo-Donegal and Galway-Athlone radio link systems and new circuits will be brought into service shortly on the Dublin-Arklow and Waterford-Wexford systems. A radio link between Tralee and Limerick is expected to provide circuits by next summer and a radio link connecting Limerick and Athlone is in course of installation.
The capacity of the main coaxial cables is being substantially increased and many main underground cabling schemes are in progress or have been approved for execution. At the same time aerial cable and carrier systems are being employed more extensively to provide additional circuits. Almost a thousand miles of open-wire circuits were provided on various minor routes.
I had hoped that it would be possible to record substantial progress during the year in the conversion of telephone exchanges to automatic working. Equipment for a large number of exchanges is on hand and the work of installation is well advanced, but the programme has been seriously retarded by unexpected difficulties and "teething troubles". Only a few of these exchanges have actually been converted and a satisfactory standard of working has not yet been attained at them. No effort is being spared to eliminate the difficulties that have been met, but until full success has been achieved it is not possible to give a reliable forecast about the introduction of automatic working at other exchanges.
A direct transatlantic telephone link between Dublin and New York was opened during the year and effected a welcome improvement in the speed of the service. We are hopeful of being able to obtain additional direct circuits during the year to cater for the increasing demand on this route.
Twelve additional circuits to Great Britain have been arranged for and will be in service shortly. A further 36 will be in operation late this year or early next year, and a further 48 will it is hoped, be provided in 1964.
Despite the necessary concentration on trunk and exchange development, a small increase was achieved over the previous year in the installation of new telephones. The number of connections made, however, fell short of demand which has grown spectacularly in recent years. There is a fairly long waiting list and, although arrangements have been made to instal a record number of telephones this year, it is clear that a back log of waiting applications will be a feature of the situation for some time to come.
This aspect of the position should not, however, be permitted to obscure the general picture which is one of progressive achievement. The number of exchange lines has been doubled in the past ten years and quadrupled since the end of the war, the mileage of trunk circuits has been greatly increased and the automatic system has been extended to 75 per cent of all subscribers in the country. During practically all of this period of development, expenditure has been kept within revenue and the charges for the service have been among the lowest in Europe.
The picture that I have given of a growing service is, of course, reflected in a considerable increase in the capital requirements of the telephone service. Large scale expenditure on big trunk and exchange development schemes will involve greater capital investment. In fact the capital provision for 1963/64 amounts to £4½ million which is almost three times the amount expended four years ago.
The £10 million capital expenditure authorised in the Telephone Capital Act, 1960, will soon be exhausted. It will be necessary therefore to introduce a new Telephone Capital Bill later in the year.
Business in the Post Office Savings Bank continues to increase. Deposits during 1962 amounted to £21.2 million, and withdrawals to £17.8 million. At 31st December, the total balance, including interest, due to depositors was approximately £97.2 million as compared with £91.5 million at the end of the previous year. It should pass the £100 million mark this year.
Deposits and withdrawals by the Trustee Savings Banks during the year amounted to approximately £1.4 million and £0.5 million respectively, and the total amount, including interest, to the credit of the Trustee Banks at the end of the year was £17.4 million, an increase of £1.4 million over the previous year.
Sales of Savings Certificates during 1962 amounted to £3.7 million, and repayments, including interest, to £2.9 million. At 31st December, 1962, the value of principal remaining invested was £28.1 million, an increase of £1.4 million during the year.
As Deputies know, Post Offices throughout the country continued to co-operate in the issue of Prize Bonds and approximately £9 million of the £30 million of Prize Bonds issued up to this year were collected through Post Offices. About £1 million was withdrawn from the Savings Bank or from Savings Certificates for re-investment in other Government securities.
I should like once again to bring to your notice and to record my appreciation of the excellent work performed in the cause of National Savings by the members of the Savings Committee.
The Department's services for the transfer of funds continue to be widely used. The total value of Money Orders and Postal Orders issued during 1962 amounted to £23.8 million, an increase of £1.2 million over the preceding year. The increasing use by the public of higher value money orders and postal orders is indicated by the fact that the number of orders issued dropped by 300,000 to 10 million.
Social Welfare and other agency payments totalled £31 million, an increase of £1.5 million on the preceding year.
During 1962, four new automatic telephone exchanges were erected. Major building schemes at Carrick-on-Shannon and Sligo Post Offices were completed, improved Public Offices were provided at Killarney, Longford and Wexford, and adaptations were carried out at Waterford Post Office. Work was under way on the building of twelve other automatic exchanges, on the provision of new Post Offices at Ballinasloe, Wicklow and Youghal, on the erection of a new district sorting office at Finglas, and on major improvements to Ennis and Limerick Post Offices.
This year the building of a new trunk exchange for Dublin has already commenced and during the remainder of the year a start is expected to be made on four new automatic exchanges, on a new district sorting office at Raheny and on improvements to Arklow and Mullingar Post Offices.
As regards the new central sorting office for Dublin, the foundation and steel erection works were somewhat delayed by unexpected water-level difficulties and by the bad weather. The work is, however, now progressing satisfactorily.
The Estimate provides for a total staff of 17,446, an increase of 380 on last year's figure. The addition is made up mainly of engineering workmen required to implement the larger telephone development programme and operating staff required to cater for the growing volume of telephone calls. The increase in the Department's salary and wages bill is attributable to the cost of the extra staff, to increases in remuneration granted during the past year and to additional costs arising out of the shorter working week for postmen.
The Department as one of the largest employers of labour in the country is keenly conscious of the vital need of keeping abreast of developments in modern management techniques, and various members of the staff attended courses during the past year in management, work study and similar techniques conducted by the Irish Management Institute and other bodies working in these fields.
A conference between headquarters officials and postmasters will be held in May. These conferences which are held every few years, cover the whole range of post office services and are a means of maintaining and strengthening the essential link between headquarters and the local managers in the field.
In thanking the staff for the work of the past year, I must make special reference to the prolonged spell of severe weather we had after Christmas: the postal and telephone services were kept going through all that time in almost every area and where a service was interrupted it was quickly restored. For that achievement I should like to thank publicly all those who by their zeal and initiative overcame all the difficulties of snow and ice. And I should like to include in these words of thanks the local staffs of CIE and the drivers of our mail contract services who worked side by side with Post Office staffs. I am sure all Deputies join with me in this appreciation of work well done.
I mentioned last year that pay increases together with reduction in weekly hours of work conceded to various grades, had added over £1 million to the Department's wages bill. As the recent Supplementary Estimate indicated, further increases since then have added something of the order of £100,000 a year. Labour costs are, of course, the dominating factor in the Department's expenditure. Approximately 60 per cent. of expenditure is for salaries, wages and such related matters as travelling expenses and superannuation. In addition, labour costs affect significantly the charges to us for the conveyance of mails, for the supply of electricity, for large-scale construction works by outside contractors, such as buildings, the installation of automatic telephone exchanges, or the laying of underground cables.
In Appendix E, Deputies will see a summary of the trading results in recent years of the Department's business on a commercial accounting basis. That is to say, all income and expenditure, whether in cash or notional, as in the case of services rendered to or by other Government Departments, have been taken into account and provision made for such matters as superannuation liability and depreciation on plant. In 1961-62 the Department just broke even. At the moment I cannot say with certainty what the results for 1962-63 will be, but the indications are that, in spite of the increased postal and telephone charges, the surplus, over the services as a whole, will be the relatively very small one of approximately £100,000. That will be substantially less than in the years immediately prior to 1961-62, and the surpluses in these years were in themselves inadequate to provide for contingencies and to offset losses in bad years.
However, it is a bit soon to make up one's mind about our financial position; experience of the working of the services up to the end of the calendar year will provide a more reliable indication of the way we are going. There is general acceptance of the Department's position as a trading organisation engaged in giving a nation-wide service to the public and expected to pay its way, overall, in doing so. In agreement with the Minister for Finance, I have decided recently on certain administrative measures which will place the Post Office commercial accounts on a more realistic basis and will recognise the special position of the Department to which I have referred.
Hitherto, as Deputies know, the practice has been that while other Government Departments paid in cash for telegraph and telephone services no money passed in respect of postal services or in respect of a wide variety of agency services which, as shown in Appendix B on page 249 of the Volume of Estimates, have an estimated value of £909,000 in 1963-64. Similarly, other Government Departments render services to the Post Office to an estimated value of £445,000. Although credit is taken and given in the Department's commercial accounts for these various services which are not paid for, there has been an air of unreality about the figures, which must persist so long as no real transfer of funds takes place. The changeover to a cash basis for all services— which cannot be made effective until 1964-65 as Departments will have to make appropriate provision in their Estimates—will give greater reality to the transactions, will place the accounts on a surer footing, and will encourage both my Department and other Departments to examine the services concerned to see if they can be used more economically and more efficiently.
The Minister for Finance has agreed that, in future, profits on the Department's services will notionally be carried to a special reserve account and that in considering annually the Department's proposals for expenditure—particularly capital expenditure —he will bear in mind the amounts to credit of this account as well as the total of depreciation provisions made in the Department's accounts. The Minister for Finance has agreed also to widen the powers delegated to the Post Office in a number of administrative matters, with the general object of enabling the Post Office to act more freely and to cultivate a more commercial approach in the conduct of its services. When experience of these changes has been gained the general position will be re-examined with a view to seeing whether any more radical changes in the Department's status would be warranted.
Under the Broadcasting Authority Act, the Authority has been given the maximum freedom in regard to broadcasting and television programmes and ordinary day-to-day administration. In the circumstances, I do not propose to report in detail on the Authority's activities during the past year. Instead I shall comment only on the main developments and on matters in which I have a specific function under the Broadcasting Authority Act and the Wireless Telegraphy Act.
Out of each £4 licence, £1 is intended for the sound broadcasting service. After deducting the costs of collection, a total of about £514,600 is being provided for sound broadcasting under both Subheads K1 and K2. This amount plus sound advertising income will not be sufficient to meet the expenditure on that service in 1963-64 and the question of increasing the licence fee will have to be considered during the year. The television element of the grant in respect of the net receipts from combined licences amounts to about £572,000.
The Government decided when the television service was being established that it should be operated without ultimate cost to the Exchequer. When the Broadcasting Authority Bill was being considered, it was felt that the television service would probably not begin to pay its way until the third year of operation. I am happy to say, however, that the Authority expects that in 1962-63—the first full year of operation—Telefís Éireann will break about even. Of course 1962-63 is not a representative year as none of the provincial transmitters was in operation for the first eight months. Nevertheless, the results are definitely encouraging.
Now that it has been shown that a television service can be provided without an annual subsidy from the Exchequer, the Authority will no doubt be under pressure to improve that service in various ways. In particular there will be a demand for more and better home-originated programmes. The more ambitious types of home programmes are, however, very expensive. Moreover, the Authority's expenditure in the coming year will be greater than in 1962/63 because, apart from the operating costs of the provincial transmitters for a full year, it will have to meet higher charges by way of interest and depreciation as its capital construction programme nears completion. It is problematical, therefore, whether any worthwhile improvements in programmes can be afforded during 1963-64 out of Telefís Éireann's income from advertisements and the television element of the £4 combined licence fee.
During the past year, the Authority's main concern was to extend the television service to the whole country as quickly as possible. It had hoped that the provincial transmitters at Truskmore, Mount Leinster, Mullaghanish and Maghera would all be in full operation before the end of 1962. Unforeseen delays and difficulties prevented this and the recent appalling weather has caused further delay. At the present time the only provincial mast which has been completed is that at Truskmore. Nevertheless television transmissions have been made since 23rd December, 1962 from Mount Leinster, Mullaghanish and Truskmore and since 10th February from Maghera. None of these stations is yet operating on full power and temporary masts are being utilised at Mount Leinster, Mullaghanish and Maghera.
It is not surprising in the circumstances that reception over the country generally is patchy. The Authority is pushing ahead with all possible speed and it is expected that by the summer the four provincial stations will be operating on full power from permanent masts. This should lead to a considerable improvement in some areas and the Authority will then consider what further steps are necessary in areas where reception is still poor.
As Deputies are aware, the national television service will be on 625 lines but Kippure and Truskmore will broadcast also on 405 lines for many years. The Kippure station has been transmitting on both systems since 1st July, 1962. The present transmissions from Truskmore are on 405 lines only but 625 line transmissions from there will commence later this year. I should perhaps again impress on prospective purchasers of sets outside the normal service areas of Kippure and Truskmore that they should satisfy themselves regarding the quality of reception before purchasing 405 line receivers.
As I have already said, the Authority's main objective during the past year was to extend the television service to all parts of the country as quickly as possible. The capital costs of providing the national television service were higher than anticipated when the Broadcasting Authority Bill was under consideration and advances to Radio Éireann are approaching the limit of two million pounds set by Section 23 of the Act. Accordingly consideration will have to be given to the introduction of legislation to increase this limit during the forthcoming year.
It should interest Deputies to know that the Authority joined Eurovision on a provisional basis in the middle of last year and has signified its wish to continue participation during the present year. The position will be reviewed in the light of the experience gained. In the absence of a direct link the Eurovision programmes in which the Authority participated were brought to the transmitter via the BBC. In all six were transmitted from Kippure, namely, the Easter Message of His Holiness, the opening of the Ecumenical Council on 11th October and four broadcasts from the European Championships Games in Belgrade. In addition there were of course the Telstar broadcasts which were inter-continental exchanges of television programmes, whereas Eurovision is concerned with programme exchanges between European Countries.
I have had many complaints regarding the interference caused to the reception of programmes by various types of electrical equipment. As the House is aware, all powers appropriate for the investigation and detection of interference with wireless telegraphy receiving apparatus have been conferred upon Radio Éireann. Draft regulations to control undue interference caused by electric motors were published and made available to the public up to June 9th last. My Advisory Committee has since considered amendments to the draft which had been suggested. It is my intention within the next few months to make regulations which I trust will result in reducing this major source of interference. I also propose to publish about the same time a draft of regulations to control interference caused by ignition equipment.
It is satisfactory to know that the publication of the draft regulations regarding electric motors has prompted inquiries from members of the trade and is an indication that they are taking steps to conform with requirements.
So far as reception from the BBC and UTV is concerned, the relative weakness of the signals makes satisfactory reception difficult. It would be altogether unreasonable to expect that electrical apparatus would be suppressed to such a degree that no interference would be caused to reception from distant television or radio stations because the cost would be prohibitive. Accordingly, the observance of the interference limits which will be prescribed by regulation will not ensure satisfactory reception of foreign programmes. This is a factor which the viewer may be slow to accept.
I have heard many complaints regarding undue interference caused to radio reception by television receivers and I am having this question studied. It is possible that the solution may lie more in the establishing of a code of practice for television set manufacturers rather than in the introduction of statutory regulations.
No permanent change was made during the year in the hours authorised for television and sound broadcasting or in the limits fixed for the broadcasting of advertisements. These matters are subject to review from time to time.
During the year, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, I approved the terms of the Radio Éireann Superannuation Scheme which was submitted to me by the Authority under Section 15 of the Act. The scheme which is a contributory one applies to practically all of the Authority's staff, including former civil servants who transferred to the service of the Authority. The benefits available under the scheme are similar to the superannuation privileges of established civil servants. Copies of the scheme have been laid before each House of the Oireachtas.
I was happy to give my consent to the appointment by the Authority of Mr. Kevin C. McCourt as DirectorGeneral as from 1st January, 1963, in place of Mr. Edward J. Roth who resigned to take up a television post in London. I know that Mr. McCourt brings to the Authority qualities of the highest order and that he can be relied upon to develop and consolidate the good work already done. I feel sure that Deputies will join with me in wishing him every success in the difficult task he has undertaken.
