I move:
That a sum not exceeding £36,732,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1972, 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 a grant-in-aid.
The net Estimate of £36,732,000 for Posts and Telegraphs for 1971-72 shown in the Estimates volume is £1,725,990 greater than the corresponding figure for 1970-71, including Supplementary Estimates and the amount transferred from the Vote for increases in pensions, et cetera. The increase is made up of extra provisions totalling £3,317,990 under eight subheads offset by reductions totalling £289,990 under three subheads and higher receipts amounting to £1,302,010 under Appropriations-in-Aid.
By far the biggest increase is under subhead A where an extra £2,259,990 is needed mainly to meet the extra cost for a full year of the 12th round and other pay increases which were granted during 1970-71. The following comments are offered on the other subheads which show substantial variations from last year's provisions:
Under subhead C an additional £323,000 is required mainly to meet the cost of additional leased accommodation including a new telecommunications headquarters at Marlborough Street, Dublin—and of higher expenditure on sites and buildings. The decrease of £162,000 under subhead D is due to the incidence of presentation and clearance of accounts for air mail conveyance.
Under subhead G an extra £175,000 is being provided to meet higher telephone capital repayments to the Exchequer arising from continuing capital investment in the telephone service. The increase of £258,000 under subhead J is mainly due to higher pensions and gratuities following increased rates of pay. Under subhead K there is only a nominal provision of £10 as against £35,000 last year for commissions and special inquiries.
Under subhead L an extra £250,000 has been provided so that this year's grant-in-aid to Rado Telefís Éireann will reflect the receipts for a full year from the higher broadcasting licence fees which came into operation as from 1st July, 1970. On the receipts side the increase of £1,302,010 under subhead T—Appropriations-in-Aid— arises mainly from the recovery of higher amounts from other Government Departments and from telephone capital funds. The staff costs incurred on agency services provided for other Departments and on telephone capital development have, of course, increased substantially as a result of the 12th round and other pay increases which I have already mentioned.
The total number of letters handled in 1970 was about 456 million representing a decrease of 1.3 per cent on the previous year. The volume of air mail correspondence rose, however, by over 6 per cent, mainly as a result of a substantial growth in second class mail. The number of parcels handled in 1970 increased by over 2 per cent as compared with 1969.
As might be expected postal traffic fell following the increases in charges introduced in October, 1970. Traffic in the Christmas period, for example, was about 20 per cent down on the previous year. The British postal strike which lasted from 20th January to 7th March, 1971, resulted in a considerable loss of traffic. Nevertheless the traffic figures for the first nine months of 1971 are only slightly below those for the corresponding period in 1970, that is before charges were increased.
There has been a continued increase in the volume of business at post office counters. This business covers a wide range of agency services on behalf of other Government Departments, apart from those required for purely post office purposes. A high standard of mail service continues to be given. Over 90 per cent of internal letters posted in time for outward despatches are delivered on the next delivery day. The standard of service for parcels and second class mail is well above that normally given elsewhere. The bulk of outward mail is despatched by air on the day of posting, and, with few exceptions, letters received from abroad are delivered on the following working day.
During 1970, 49 new motorised delivery services were introduced in rural areas and a further 38 were added in the first six months of 1971. There are now about 480 motorised rural services in operation and about one-third of the total route mileage has been motorised. An additional 167 postmen posts were created in 1970, mostly in the Dublin postal district where they were needed to cater for expansion as a result of housing and other development.
On 25th February last I gave particulars of the special postage stamps issued in 1970 and of the stamps which had been or would be issued during 1971. I also mentioned that in 1972 a special stamp of symbolic design would be issued to honour the many leading figures on both sides who died during the period of the civil war.
A special open competition has been held for the design of this stamp. It will be issued on 1st June, 1972, and kept on sale until 31st May, 1973. Six additional stamps are also planned in 1972. These comprise the Europa stamp, a stamp in the series on contemporary Irish art, a Christmas stamp, a stamp to mark World Health Day, 1972, which is sponsored by the World Health Organisation, and stamps to mark the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Olympic Council of Ireland and of the issue of the first Irish postage stamp.
The Departmental committee which I set up in September, 1970, to consider the structure, operation and finances of the postal services, including counter services, have been meeting regularly. They expect to be in a position to furnish an interim report shortly and hope to furnish a final report about 12 months from now.
In 1970-71 the number of telegrams handled, 1,198,000, was almost 6 per cent lower than in the previous year. The fall in traffic was greater than normal mainly as a result of the British post office strike in the latter portion of the year.
The telex service, which is carrying more and more messages that would formerly have been sent as telegrams, continues to grow steadily. In 1970-71 over 2,000,000 telex calls were originated as compared with about 1,500,000 in 1969-70. At the end of March last the number of subscribers had risen to 1,150 having grown by 25 per cent approximately in the previous year. In this regard our current rate of growth compares favourably with that in any other European country. It is clear that the usefulness of the service, particularly in connection with export activities, is being recognised and availed of and that we can look forward confidently to further large-scale expansion. Planning is going ahead on this basis.
A new satellite telex exchange was opened in Waterford in September last. Contracts have been placed for further satellite telex exchanges in Limerick and Galway. Arrangements for the further extension of existing exchanges and for the installation of a new international exchange are well advanced.
To cater for traffic growth, additional circuits were provided in 1970-71 on the routes from Dublin to Belfast, London, Frankfurt and the USA. Further circuits have since been provided and more are planned.
Automatic telex service was introduced in the service to the USA in April last. The arrangements enabled the minimum charge of £2.25 for three minutes to be abolished for automatically selected calls and replaced by a rate of 2½ pence per two seconds. I am glad to report that the level of traffic has jumped in the meantime, the number of calls made in the six months beginning in April being approximately one-third greater than the total in 1970. Over 99 per cent of telex calls are now connected automatically.
The provision of telecommunication facilities for data transmission is a service with considerable scope for expansion. Data may be transmitted to computers either over rented circuits or over the public telephone and telex networks. There are nearly 50 data transmission units, known as modems, in service and such units are now being supplied and maintained by my Department. Developments in data communication generally are being kept under close review. My Department have recently joined with other European telecommunications administrations in a special study of future prospects and developments in this field.
Telephone business was as buoyant as ever in 1970-71. The number of telephone calls handled was about 327 million. Trunk calls at about 42 million were some 11 per cent higher than in the previous year; local calls at 285 million were up by 8.5 per cent.
Applications for telephones again reached a record level. The number of connections was 23,000 but this was not sufficient to match demand and the waiting list increased by over 2,000 to 15,000 at the end of March last. It is now over 18,500. I shall return to this matter later.
During the year 49 manual exchanges were converted to automatic working, as compared with 29 in 1969-70. In addition, 162 exchanges—51 automatic and 111 manual—were extended by the installation of additional equipment to provide for further growth of subscribers' lines and traffic.
Over 160 new telephone kiosks, including 129 in rural areas, were provided. The trunk service was expanded by the addition of over 1,300 circuits comprising over 125,000 circuit miles. Among the more important trunk works completed were: coaxial cable schemes between Athlone/Castlerea/ Claremorris / Castlebar / Ballina and Portlaoise/Birr; extension of the Dublin/Portlaoise and Dublin/Belfast/ cross-channel microwave links, and expansion of the capacity of the trunk cables serving Killarney. Numerous other routes on which extra circuits were provided are listed in the notes which I circulated recently to Deputies to assist them in discussing this estimate.
In the current year high capacity microwave links have been brought into service between Dublin and Cork and between Limerick and Shannon. I should also like to mention the completion in August last of a radio link to provide additional trunk lines to Inishmore. The two other Aran Islands are each served by single channel radio link to Galway. The telephone operators at Kilronan, Inishmaan and Inishere exchanges can dial one another through the Galway trunk exchange. They can also dial Galway numbers and call directly to a number of manual exchanges in the vicinity of Galway.
Works at present in progress include major trunk schemes, coaxial or microwave, between Shannon/Ennis, Portlaoise / Athlone, Dublin / Dundalk, Athlone / Ballinasloe / Loughrea / Galway, Tralee/Killarney, Killarney/Kenmare/Sneem, Dundalk/Carrickmacross, Drogheda / Navan / Ceanannus Mór, Fermoy/Cork, Galway/Clifden and Ballina/Belmullet.
Contracts have been placed for coaxial schemes between Waterford/ Clonmel, Tralee / Cork, Portlaoise/ Limerick and Portlaoise / Waterford. The Dublin/Belfast coaxial cable needs to be re-equipped; in order to enable this to be done and to increase substantially the capacity of the cable without adversely affecting service over the route, arrangements have been made in collaboration with the British post office to provide another microwave link between Dublin and Belfast.
Traffic over the transatlantic route to America has been increasing at a remarkable rate. The number of circuits was increased from 14 to 22 in 1970-71 and a further two have since been added. These 24 lines are made up of satellite and submarine cable circuits. Arrangements have been made to have further circuits in service before next summer.
Within the past few months direct circuits have been set up between Dublin and Paris and Dublin and Madrid. These have enabled a much improved service to be given to France and Spain. Substantial extension of direct circuiting must, however, await completion of the new international exchange, the equipment for which is on order and due to be installed in 1973.
Subscriber trunk dialling (STD) between Dublin, Belfast and London was introduced on 1st October (London) and 1st November (Belfast). I am glad to say that from the start about 80 per cent of non-coinbox calls were being dialled and the proportion is increasing. Concurrently with the opening of the direct service to London the three-tier tariff for cross-channel calls based on distance was replaced by flat rates of charge without regard to distance. The new rates would result in a sizeable reduction in call revenue if the level of traffic remained the same. We are confident, however, that the increase of business stimulated by the direct dialling facility will more than offset the reduction.
It will be clear from what I have said that a major programme of capital works is in train. I have outlined only the bigger and more important schemes. Various other works are going ahead throughout the country. Unfortunately, we still have a number of areas where, owing to over-loaded exchanges or trunk lines, service is not as good as it should be and in some areas connection of additional telephones must be restricted because of shortage of plant. Our resources of skilled staff and capital are just not sufficient to cater quickly for all the works that need to be carried out. In most cases improvements are on the way—sites for exchanges have been or are being acquired, buildings are being erected, contracts for equipment have been placed. Orders already placed for exchange and trunk equipment alone, some placed a considerable time ago, add up to over £9 million. Deliveries are subject to unavoidable long delays owing to world demand in this field.
Coming now to the question of cost, the programme of new works for last year had to be curtailed to conserve capital. Nevertheless, it cost about £9.5 million. The original allocation for the current year was also fixed at £9.5 million, approximately but this was far below requirements and efforts to keep to it have reduced the rate of connection of new telephones. The Government have recently agreed to increase the allocation to £10.73 million and I hope to get more next year when heavy forward commitments for exchange and trunk plant will mature.
Many people may perhaps be surprised at the order of cost I have mentioned but it should be remembered that the use of the system, firstly, by the general body of existing subscribers and, secondly, by new subscribers is expanding rapidly and one just cannot hope to eliminate either delays on calls or delays in getting telephones unless the necessary plant has been provided on an adequate scale in advance. This means having sufficient spare plant— installed and ready—in exchanges, on trunk routes, in the local distribution network, underground and aerial cables, in every exchange area. This in turn requires extremely heavy investment. Unfortunately, so long as the supply of capital available for the public services as a whole is limited we have little prospect of getting our full requirements and a choice has to be made as to what kind of works must be deferred. In such circumstances priority must be given to providing a good quality of service throughout the system and in meeting the expanding needs of the general body of subscribers even if this means in the short term a growing waiting list. Expansion of the exchange and trunk system on a large scale is necessary in any event to provide the base for substantial increase in the intake of new subscribers.
I am glad to say that a radio link telephone call system is expected to be introduced early in 1972 at Valentia coast station. Ships within a radius of about 200 miles from Valentia will then be able to make telephone calls to subscribers here and in Britain and the subscribers will in turn be able to make calls to the ships.
Within the past 12 months a new post office and manual telephone exchange was provided at Cahirciveen and a new district sorting office was completed at Ballyfermot, Dublin. New telephone buildings and extensions were completed at many centres including Rathmines (Dublin), Birr, Clifden, Cobh, Ennis, Kenmare, Loughrea, Nenagh, Thurles and Tramore. Improvements in manual exchanges and postal accommodation were carried out in Castlebar, Cavan, Boyle, Gorey and Dun Laoghaire.
The new building at Marlborough Street, Dublin, is now virtually completed and is already being used as a telecommunications staff headquarters. It will also house an international telephone trunk exchange which is expected to be ready by the end of 1973.
Works in progress or contracted for includes a new post office and telephone exchange at Cavan, a new post office at Portlaoise, a new district sorting office at Glenageary (Dublin) and new telephone buildings or extensions at Crown Alley, Shelbourne Road, Nutley Park, Phibsboro and Dundrum (Dublin), Castlebar, Clonmel, Drogheda, Dundalk, Limerick, Longford, Monaghan, Newcastlewest and at 26 rural centres.
Accommodation problems still exist at certain post offices and exchanges. Efforts are being made to find solutions to these problems and it will be appreciated that the extent to which improvement schemes can be effected is limited by the money available.
The estimate provides for 20,888 posts for the current financial year, an increase of 388 posts over the corresponding provision for last year. Most of the additional posts are required for the telecommunications services, but, as I mentioned already, some are needed for postal delivery work, particularly in Dublin because of housing and other development.
In previous years the House was given some details of recruitment of professional engineers for telecommunications work and of the Department's scholarship schemes designed to supplement the intake of professional engineers.
Recruitment of engineers is proceeding with reasonable success and the scholarship schemes are also going well. The Department at present employs some 190 professional engineers. Since 1964, 38 scholarships have been awarded and further scholarships will be awarded this year. So far, ten students have graduated and are serving as engineers in the Department.
Some 700 telephonists were recruited to meet operating requirements during last summer's peak traffic period and the recruitment and training of staff to meet requirements for next summer has commenced.
The Department's welfare officers, of whom there are six in the Dublin area, one in Cork and one in Limerick, continue to provide a most valuable service to the staff and to the Department.
Turning now to staff relations, I would like, first of all, to pay tribute to the staff for the way in which they carried out their work during the last year. We have come to expect a high standard of service from post office staff and may perhaps tend to take it for granted. It is only right, therefore, that I should place on record my appreciation of their efforts during the past year. In the current year, and in the years ahead even greater effort will be needed from them in view of the present tight money situation and the need for the post office to break even financially. I feel sure that the Department will have the understanding and the co-operation of the staff in this situation.
In introducing the Estimate last year I mentioned that management and staff representatives have been examining together how staff can be given a greater sense of involvement and participation in the affairs of their offices, and with this object in mind it had been agreed to set up consultation councils at some of the major staff centres. Since then further consultation councils have been established. Such councils are now functioning at almost all the major centres. The question of extending them to the remaining offices will be considered by the management and staff representatives after some further experience of their operation. While nobody expected that consultation councils would solve all the problems in the post office I feel sure that they must have contributed, at least in some measure, to a better understanding all round of many of these problems.
I referred last year to the employment on an experimental basis of consultants using the behavioural sciences. While the pilot assignment has not yet been completed the indications are that the use of these sciences can be helpful in isolating causes of dissatisfaction and suggesting ways in which work can be made more satisfying. The question of carrying out a further test is at present being considered.
Because of the demands that training in decimalisation made last year, training of supervisors and other staff had to be curtailed somewhat. Now that the decimalisation hurdle has been cleared, the provision of training courses internally by the Department and the attendance of staff at selected courses conducted by the Civil Service training centre, College of Industrial Relations and other outside bodies has been resumed. My Department are keenly conscious of the need to keep abreast of modern thinking in supervision and human relations, and staff will be released from their normal duties for training of this kind so far as our resources permit. The standard entry training schemes provided by the Department have also been under review during the year and certain changes which it is felt will help in turning out better qualified engineering technicians have been agreed between the Department and the union concerned.
The use of work study and other techniques aimed at raising the efficiency of the various services was continued during the year, and satisfactory results continue to be achieved. I mentioned last year that the Department had ordered a computer which is expected to be delivered in 1972. Staff for systems analysis and programming work for the computer have been recruited, and preparatory work in the first area to be processed by computer is well advanced. In the meantime use is being made of computer bureaux where there is advantage in doing so and where the necessary preparation work is not extensive.
A subject that has been raised repeatedly by Deputies on this Estimate over the years is that of pensions for temporary and part-time staff. A staff claim on this has been before the General Council under the scheme of conciliation and arbitration for some time past but a report of the discussions has not yet been issued. Under a separate agreement on the claim however, it was agreed to recommend a very substantial improvement in the retirement gratuity for part-time staff, and this improvement has been in operation for some time past.
Pay is such a major part of post office expenditure that it obviously calls for comment. Post office staff were parties to the 12th round agreement in the Civil Service, which in turn was based on an agreement for the public service generally. That agreement remains in force until the end of December, 1971. The 13th round national agreement will then come into operation. The £2 a week increase provided for in the national agreement as from 1st January next will cost the post office £2.4 million a year; the 4 per cent which will come into effect on 1st January 1973, will cost a further £1.3 million, and as Deputies are aware the national agreement provides for a further increase on that date should the cost of living rise in 1972 by more than 4 per cent. Moreover, the Department have had to concede increases in respect of certain claims for restoration of traditional pay relativities with other classes, and other similar claims are under discussion at the Departmental Council under the scheme of conciliation and arbitration for the Civil Service.
It will be evident from what I have said that rising staff costs will make it very difficult for the Department to maintain present standards of service unless charges are increased further.
Deposits by members of the general public in the post office savings bank amounted to £57 million during 1970 and withdrawals to £43.4 million. At 31st December, 1970, the total balance due to depositors, including interest amounting to £5 million, was approximately £139.4 million, an increase of £18.6 million on the figure for 31st December, 1969. During 1970 the volume of the post office savings bank business was abnormally high because of the banks dispute.
During the first few months of 1971 the volume of savings bank business continued at a high level, the number of transactions being 18 per cent above that for the corresponding period of 1970. The unexpected increase in business during the banks dispute, and since then, strained the Department's staff and ADP machine resources at headquarters and resulted in heavy arrears of work. These arrears led, regrettably, to considerable delays at times in dealing with correspondence from the public and in returning savings bank books to depositors who had forwarded them for the addition of interest. Special efforts are being made to bring the work up-to-date.
Net deposits in the post office savings bank by the trustee savings bank amounted to £5.4 million in 1970. The total amount to the credit of the trustee savings banks at the end of 1970, including £12.3 million in the special investment account, was £33.9 million, an increase of £7 million over the previous year.
Sales of 6½ per cent Investment Bonds in 1970 amounted to £1.8 million—a decrease of £3.5 million compared with 1969, the year of their introduction. Repayments in 1970 totalled £0.4 million, an increase of £0.2 million compared with 1969. The balance to the credit of investors at the end of 1970 was £6.5 million compared with £5.1 million at the end of 1969.
Sales of savings certificates during 1970 amounted to £4.2 million, and repayments, including interest, came to £5.8 million. The net outflow of £1.6 million was almost the same as in 1969. The principal remaining invested at the end of 1970 was £46.6 million, approximately the same as at the end of 1969.
A new issue of savings certificates, the eighth, was launched on the 14th June this year. The yield from this issue is 35 per cent over a period of five years, which represents a compound interest rate of 6 per cent per annum free of income tax. This is equal to 9¼ per cent per annum for a person paying income tax at the standard rate. The comparable yield from the previous issue was 50 per cent over a period of eight years, a compound interest rate of 5¼ per cent per annum free of income tax. Sales of the new issue for the three and a half months ended 30th September, totalled £3.6 million.
The national instalment-savings scheme was introduced by the Minister for Finance under the management of my Department on the 1st September, 1970. Under the scheme a person agrees to save 12 monthly instalments of £1 or any number of pounds up to £20, and to leave the total so saved on deposit for a further two years. At the end of that period, the saver will receive a tax-free bonus of 25 per cent of the amount saved. In the 12 months ended 31st August last 36,000 agreements and instalments totalling £4 million were received in my Department.
The aggregate result for 1970 for the savings media with which my Department is directly concerned was a net increase in savings of £20.9 million exclusive of interest compared with £4.8 million for 1969.
I should like to record my appreciation of the excellent work done by the National Savings Committee in promoting small savings.
The value of money orders issued in 1970 was £86.2 million as compared with £37.7 million the previous year. The value of postal orders issued in 1970 was £14.2 million compared with £8.9 million in 1969. The abnormal increase in both money order and postal order business in 1970 can be attributed to the banks dispute.
Agency service payments made by the Post Office, mainly on behalf of the Department of Social Welfare, increased from £64 million—in 1969 to £81.5 million in 1970. Post offices took part as usual in the sales of prize bonds, handling about 33 per cent of the total collected in 1970.
The Department publish commercial accounts which present their position as a trading concern. They are compiled in accordance with commercial practice to show the expenditure incurred and income earned in the year of account. Thus items like pension liability, interest and depreciation are included in the expenditure before arriving at the surplus or deficit. The accounts are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
It is largely on the basis of these accounts that financial policy, including the fixing of charges, is determined. The policy of successive Governments has been that the post office should pay their way, taking one year with another; otherwise the deficit would have to be met by the taxpayer.
Appendix C of the Book of Estimates provides a summary of the results for the four years 1965-66 to 1968-69 and provisional figures for 1969-70. The commercial accounts for 1969-70 have now been laid before the House and show an overall surplus of £512,756. The surplus of £892,857 on the telephone service was partly offset by deficits of £361,373 on the postal service and £18,728 on the telegraph service. In the three previous years there were overall deficits of £823,000, £467,0000 and £430,000.
The accounts for the year 1970-71 will not be available for some time yet but it is expected that they will show an overall deficit of about £1½ million. In this connection the 12th round and other pay increases made very heavy additions to the Department's costs, as also did movements in prices.
As Deputies know, charges for postal, telegraph and telephone services were increased in the second half of 1970-71 towards meeting these extra costs, but it was realised at the time that they would not be sufficient to take the Department out of the red. I have already referred to various pay awards which will increase the Department's costs still further in the current and in future years. It seems at present that the overall deficits in 1971-72 and 1972-73 will be even greater than the present estimate of £1½ million for 1970-71. In these circumstances, the question of a further adjustment of post office charges will have to be considered shortly but I am not in a position to say any more than that at present.
As has been the practice, my remarks on broadcasting will be confined to important issues and developments affecting the television and radio services and to matters in which, as Minister, I have a statutory function.
Radio Telefís Éireann's accounts for 1970-71 are not yet available. They are expected to show an estimated overall surplus of £3,000. This compares with an overall deficit of £21,383 in 1969-70 and an overall surplus of £144,312 in 1968-69. The very small surplus in 1970-71 illustrates the authority's continued difficulty in making ends meet, notwithstanding the increase in licence fees which came into effect from 1st July, 1970, and which increased the authority's revenue in that year by about £400,000.
In this situation the authority found it necessary to make application for a further increase in licence fees during the current year. It was decided, as Deputies know, to increase the combined licence fee from £6 to £7.50 with effect from 1st September, 1971, and also to abolish the separate radio licence fee of £1.50 as from 1st September, 1972. The abolition of the separate radio licence will mainly benefit the less well-off sections of the community. The number of such licences has, of course, been steadily diminishing with the spread of television, and at the present time almost 80 per cent of licences issued are combined licences. With the abolition of the radio licence, which I am sure will be welcomed by most Deputies, the present "combined" licence will become a television licence, though, of course, part of the licence fee revenue will continue to be allocated to the sound broadcasting service.
These licence fee adjustments will, it is estimated, provide RTE with net additional revenue of £550,000 in a full year. The extra revenue from licences should enable RTE to show a modest profit during the current year.
Provision is made in the printed volume of Estimates for a grant of £2,785,000 to the authority in respect of the net receipts from licence fees during 1971-72. This does not, of course, include the estimated additional revenue which will be brought in by the recent changes in licence fees. The supplementary estimate which will be introduced later will make provision for the appropriate extra grant, £420,000, to Radio Telefís Éireann in the present financial year.
I regret to say that evasion of payment of licence fees continues to be a problem. A special campaign was mounted by my Department this year and it met with a good measure of success. A feature of this campaign was the use of the television detection van in several areas. Indications are that it had considerable effect in persuading defaulters to take out licences. As I foreshadowed in my speech on last year's Estimate, I expect shortly to introduce a Bill providing for the compulsory registration of purchases and rentings of television sets to facilitate detection of licence evaders, and for heavier fines for possession of unlicensed sets. It is in this Bill that I propose to provide for the abolition of the sound only licence.
In March, 1970 the restrictions on wired television systems relaying external programmes were relaxed. Since then Radio Telefís Éireann have been providing such systems in competition with commercial firms. It is too early yet to make a reliable forecast of the effect which this development will have on the authority's finances generally. The use of these multi-channel systems is confined to the area in which external programmes can be received directly "off the air". There is no change in the position that authority cannot be given for the use of special technical means, such as microwave links, to extend the range of external programmes.
On the capital side, RTE were authorised to spend up to £700,000 in 1970-71. Including the outlay on communal aerial television systems, total capital expenditure on new works amounted to £682,000. In the present financial year, the authority have been authorised to spend up to £1,200,000. This is considerably higher than in recent years, and reflects the added demands for capital presented by the Radio na Gaeltachta project and RTE's development of wired television systems. In addition to these two items this capital allocation is intended to cover expenditure on the Radio Centre and equipment, and on general television and radio requirements.
The provision of studios and technical facilities for Radio na Gaeltachta has been put in hands by Radio Telefís Éireann, and it is hoped that preliminary transmissions will commence in spring, 1972. To ensure that programme planning for the service could proceed, I have appointed a Council— Comhairle Radio na Gaeltachta— under section 21 of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960.
The council are broadly representative of the Gaeltacht areas and interests. They will be concerned with the whole range of Radio na Gaeltachta activity and will exercise close surveillance of the general policy and operation of the service. They have already commenced their meetings. The service will be available initially on medium frequencies in the main Gaeltacht areas, and also on VHF in those areas covered by the three western VHF transmitters, that is roughly west of a line from Cork to Derry. It is intended to extend this area by providing VHF transmitters at Kippure and Mount Leinster to carry the service. The capital required for Radio na Gaeltachta is being provided by way of an Exchequer grant and, provision for £200,000 to meet the estimated expenditure this year will be provided in a supplementary estimate for my Department.
The position regarding colour television is that experimental transmissions are continuing. These experimental transmissions consist of programmes—mainly of sporting events —produced by means of one of the authority's outside broadcasting units, live relays from abroad and imported films. I would like to stress, however, for the information of persons who may be thinking of buying or renting a colour set, that regular or studio transmissions in colour from RTE cannot be contemplated for several years ahead. This is because of the heavy cost which would be involved for the authority and the effect such transmissions would have on the general economy through stimulating the purchase of expensive imported colour television sets.
In the course of the debate on my Department's Estimate for 1970-71 reference was made to a short-wave radio station for this country and I promised to have the question reexamined. The reasons for not proceeding with the short-wave service in the early 1950s were the difficulty of getting a suitable wavelength, the negligible amount of international shortwave listening throughout the world because of poor listening conditions, the general absence of short-wave bands on receiving sets in America and the appeal of television. I am advised that the position remains substantially the same. The cost of providing a shortwave service would be very heavy and in all the circumstances I have come to the conclusion that the provision of such a service could not be justified at present.
On the 28th September, 1971, members of an illegal organisation were interviewed on a television programme "7 Days" in a way which I, and the Government, considered to be prejudicial to the public interest. Following full consideration, and with the approval of the Government, I issued a written direction to the authority on 1st October, 1971, "to refrain from broadcasting any matter of the following class, i.e., any matter that could be calculated to promote the aims or activities of any organisation which engages in, promotes, encourages or advocates the attaining of any particular objective by violent means".
This was the first time any Minister for Posts and Telegraphs used the powers of prohibition conferred on him by section 31 of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960. I need hardly say that it was with great reluctance that I came to the conclusion that it was necessary in the public interest to invoke that section of the Act.
As Deputies are aware, I set up the Broadcasting Review Committee last June with terms of reference which require them "to review the progress of the television and sound broadcasting services since the enactment of the Broadcasting Authority Act, 1960, with particular reference to the objectives prescribed in that Act, and to make any recommendations considered appropriate in regard to the further development of the services". The committee have been actively pursuing their studies and I look forward to their report when their deliberations have been completed. I have already indicated my intention of laying the committee's report before both Houses of the Oireachtas. It is, of course, too early to give a reliable estimate of when the report is likely to be available.
The term of office of the authority expired on 31st May, 1971. In view of the establishment of the Broadcasting Review Committee, it was considered inappropriate to appoint a new authority for a full term. I am glad to say that the chairman and members accepted an invitation to continue for a further year, and were appointed accordingly for a new term which ends on 31st May, 1972.
