I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time.
The purpose of the Bill is to make three desirable changes in Post Office legislation. Briefly, these are (1) to enable free postage facilities to be authorised, (2) to transfer to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs certain regulation-making powers now vested in the Minister for Finance and (3) to give greater freedom in the handling of mail other than letter mail.
Power to enable free postage facilities to be authorised is sought in section 2 (1) (c). This is required primarily to enable packets containing literature and articles specially adapted for the use of the blind to be accepted free of postage. Our present rates for such packets are, and for many years have been, nominal in both the inland and foreign post. They range from 1/2d to 2½d according to weight up to 15 lbs. In recent years, following acceptance of the principle of free postage for these packets in the Universal Postal Union Convention, most other countries have abolished their charges. We would have done so earlier but that our rates were already nominal and legislation would be required to drop them altogether. We understand that the requirement of affixing stamps and accounting for them is now more costly in time and inconvenience for the associations devoted to the welfare of the blind than the small cost of postage. In any event I am now proposing in this Bill to take power to abolish these rates by regulation to be issued immediately after the Bill is enacted.
The power sought will be available if ever required to grant free postage facilities for other classes of packets by statutory regulations laid before the Oireachtas. I should like to make it clear that this enabling provision will be used very sparingly, if at all. It is possible, however, that the members of the Universal Postal Union might agree to provide free postage facilities on a world wide basis in other cases and in this kind of situation it should not be necessary to have to introduce further legislation to enable my Department to follow suit.
The second change proposed in the Bill is the transfer of certain regulation-making powers from the Minister for Finance to the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs. Statutory regulations made under the Post Office Act, 1908, must at present be executed by the Minister for Finance, as the successor of the Treasury. The Minister for Finance and myself agree that such regulations, being of a technical character and primarily the concern of the Post Office, should be made by the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs, subject to the consent of the Minister for Finance where charges, fees or financial matters are involved. Sub-sections (1) (a) and (2) of section 2, and section 3 of the Bill provide the necessary authority for this change.
The third change proposed is contained in section 4. It is to remove a statutory requirement relating to the treatment of what is generally known as second-class mail and so permit greater flexibility in mail-handling arrangements. At present the position is that if the despatch or delivery of letters is likely to be delayed by the treatment at the same time of printed papers, samples and postcards, the Post Office may hold over those items until the despatch or delivery next following that by which they would ordinarily be sent. The deferable mail consists mostly of circulars, bills, etc., posted at reduced rates. The Post Office in this country has over the years observed this statutory requirement as far as practicable. In Britain, it was dropped by amendment of the 1908 Act many years ago. A similar statutory requirement does not exist, so far as we are aware, in any other country.
The Post Office is now faced with problems that did not exist to anything like the same extent even a few years ago. These problems arise from the steady increase, year by year, in the volume of mail posted, the trend towards a shorter working week and more congenial hours for the staff, the more pronounced "peaking" of postal traffic and the difficult road traffic conditions in the cities that impede the speedy collection, transmission and delivery of mail. A stage has now been reached where, in order to ensure as far as practicable that letters are despatched and delivered in due course, greater freedom in the treatment of mail posted at reduced rates is necessary. Accordingly, section 4 proposes to remove the present restriction on the power to defer the treatment of such mail until the next despatch or delivery only and so enable the Post Office to deal with it at off-peak periods.
At present the great bulk of firstand second-class mail is delivered in the morning. Under more balanced delivery and staffing arrangements in Dublin and the largest centres the morning delivery or deliveries might consist mostly of letters and newspapers, the afternoon delivery of letters received in the meantime and of other mail. The amendment proposed is particularly necessary at the present time so as to enable delivery patterns to be rationalised in the light of the reduction in working hours being introduced at present for postmen and to enable a five-day working week to be granted to them, on whatever basis may finally be settled. The form the rationalisation will take is not yet clear. No decisions have been taken yet on future policy and if any major changes are to be made adequate advance notice will be given for full public discussion. I should like to repeat that the removal of the statutory restriction in question will simply place the Irish Post Office in the same position legally in this regard as other Post Office administrations. It is, therefore, in no sense an unreasonable proposal.
In brief, the intention of the Bill is to give the Department in a number of matters the greater flexibility demanded by modern conditions.