With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 12 to 15 together.
Copies of all three Dublin morning newspapers are despatched on the day of issue to all Irish diplomatic and consular missions abroad except to the Embassy in London which receives its copies from a local supplier on the day of issue. During the recent newspaper strike in Dublin, the Cork Examiner was supplied by airmail to the missions and since the ending of the strike, this newspaper is being supplied by surface mail.
All the daily newspapers are despatched direct from the newspaper offices as this is a more expeditious method of despatch than having the newspapers delivered to the Department and then issued from there. The newsagents which for a number of years in the past despatched the Dublin daily newspapers to the missions indicated that they did not wish to continue this service.
Missions which are too distant to enable copies to be sent to them by surface without a delay of more than a few days receive at least one of the Dublin dailies by airmail. The principal reason for sending at least one of the newspapers by airmail is to ensure that such distant missions have at the earliest possible moment the general news coverage of an Irish daily newspaper. Thus the Irish Press is at present sent by airmail to practically all the more distant missions in the same way as the Irish Independent was airmailed to such missions during the period when the present Opposition was in office. In addition, copies of the Irish Times are sent by airmail to a limited number of the missions which have specifically asked for this service.
The choice of newspaper to be air-mailed is not dictated by circulation figures in Ireland, but by the requirements of our representatives abroad in keeping themselves informed of developments in Ireland particularly as regards important news events and Government policy, which they may be expected to interpret in the course of local contacts. All missions have in due course the benefit of the editorial and other comment, feature articles etc. of each daily newspaper as they receive all four Irish daily newspapers.
Representations have recently been received from Independent Newspapers Ltd. on this subject and following a review of the position it has been decided to have copies of the Irish Independent despatched by airmail instead of by surface to the Embassy in Washington and the Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
Fourteen copies of the Irish Press and ten copies of the Irish Times are airmailed daily to the missions. Ten copies of the Irish Press, fifteen copies of the Irish Times and twenty-four copies of the Irish Independent are despatched by surface mail.
The major portion of the cost involved in sending newspapers abroad is, of course, the postal charges. In the first quarter of the present financial year the total cost of sending the Irish Press and the Irish Times by airmail was £163 7s. 2d. and £105 6s. 0d. respectively. In the same period the total cost of sending the Irish Press and Irish Times by surface mail was £28 13s. 9d. and £58 10s. 0d. respectively. Comparable figures cannot be given in the case of the Irish Independent as an account from Independent Newspapers for this period has not yet been submitted.
Taking an average weight of 5 ozs. per paper the postage cost of sending by airmail all three Dublin morning newspapers in one packet to Irish missions in Australia, Canada, the United States and Nigeria would be 7s. 10d. daily in the case of each mission as compared with 2s. 10d. daily for one newspaper. In the case of the Embassy in Paris, the respective figures are 6s. 6d. and 2s 4d.
As the despatch of newspapers by airmail is costly, particularly in the case of the Irish Independent which almost invariably contains more pages and is thus heavier than the other dailies, it is not proposed in the interest of economy to incur any additional costs in sending newspapers by airmail to the missions abroad.