Many speakers have been critical of the telephone service, not alone on the Estimate this year but also on Estimates in past years. There are areas in which priority should be given in the installation of telephones. I refer to new housing estates on the perimeter. When people move into these areas they can be pretty desolate. They find themselves at considerable distances from certain services. Children may fall ill and a doctor or an ambulance may be required. It may be necessary to call the fire brigade. On occasion people have had to walk three or four miles to find a telephone. I know one woman who had to walk from Tallaght to Templeogue to find a telephone because the phone in Tallaght was out of order. Telephones in new housing areas should be a priority and the Minister should take steps to ensure that in all housing development areas a telephone will be a must.
People should know in their first days in a new estate that at least they had contact with the outside world. Sometimes when a husband goes away to work in the morning there is no way for his wife to contact a member of the family if a problem arises, and problems often arise in the first days of living in a new estate. I mentioned this before, but nothing has been done. I ask the Minister to examine this situation and to ensure that some service is available in newly built-up areas as quickly as possible. It is depressing to find at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. that one has a difficult problem in the house and that assistance is needed, but that the occupants of the house are unable to locate assistance by telephone for a considerable time.
Another problem which arises in areas where there is large-scale building is that contractors who apply for telephones have often moved away from their original sites before the Post Office staff arrive to instal the phones. This increases costs. The increased costs of the contractor are passed on to the purchasers. It is important that there should be some pooling of telephone communication for builders where many of them are operating in an area such as Tallaght, or Kilbarrack. In some areas it may be possible to get temporary telephones installed. Many builders have found it difficult to conduct their business in newly built-up areas because of the shortage of telephones. There are problems in Tallaght, Ballyfermot, Bluebell and Walkinstown.
In years to come the situation may be rectified. The priorities in each area should be examined as the area is developed so that whatever services are available will be available for the common good and not just to the advantage of one or two individuals. There should be a fair spread as between public kiosks and private telephones allocated in an area. We hear of a person getting a telephone in a particular area while other people in the area are left without phones. I ask the Minister to ensure that priorities are re-examined in relation to problems in places like Tallaght and other parts of the city where services are held up because of lack of lines.
This problem of telephone shortage cannot be solved overnight. The Minister is not responsible for it. It has been caused by the improvement in living conditions. More people are applying for telephone services. Everyone would like to have a telephone. In time to come probably every house will be wired for a phone to eliminate at a later stage the difficulties which arise where temporary provisions have to be made in an unsightly manner with overhead cables carried along the roads for considerable lengths.
Stamps have been mentioned. Other Deputies have also mentioned the types of stamps which should be issued. I have spoken about this subject on previous occasions. We could have a very effective set of stamps which would clearly indicate the beauty spots of the country in good colour. That would be one way of indicating to tourists that we have much to offer. These stamps would go on letters to distant lands, bringing with them pictures of many of our beauty spots. This has been mentioned on many previous occasions. Previous Ministers did not accept the idea as being feasible. Much has been said of how we could improve our stamps. Some of the stamps which have been issued are dreadful while others are creditable. Stamps are important. They project an image which is carried to many lands. Experts should be consulted about the stamps. When one speaks of experts one sometimes gets a certain approach from so-called experts. Opinions should be gathered from a wide field of experts. Certain people might have a vested interest in a particular type of stamp. It is important to consider carefully the image, quality and size of the stamp. I do not like the present issue of stamps. Other people think they are effective.
There are many excellent programmes on radio. The programme covering the proceedings in the Dáil is an excellent one. There should be a re-run of that programme each morning, because the programme itself comes on late at night. It should have a re-run at 10 a.m. or 11 a.m. giving a review of the proceedings in the Dáil on the preceding day. The listening audience would be large. It is unfortunate that this programme is on at night. That is dictated by the time the House sits. The difficulties could be overcome. This programme is well balanced and gives a very factual account of what happens in the House. It is edited in an effective and efficient way. I have not heard comments that were in any way biassed. The public would appreciate a re-run in the morning. Even at night many people switch off the television to listen to the report on the Dáil proceedings. When a television is turned on one may be looking at a film or listening to a story, and it is impossible to listen to the account of the Dáil proceedings at the same time. A re-run would have a large listening audience and would do real justice to the commentators.
There are many people in RTE who are touchy about comments made in this House and who seek to get their own back with a vengeance. Deputy O'Connell and I were victims of the star-chamber attitude of the people in Montrose. If one comments on their programmes in this House one is invited, as we were, to attend at Montrose. There was a packed house there designed to ensure that the point of view of the commentators or of the people responsible for the programme was transmitted. There were people picked and placed in the audience to ask particular questions. The personnel who were brought on to back up their statements got the coverage they wished for. This happened to me on one occasion. It also happened to Deputy Dr. O'Connell. He and I were misrepresented. I hope in future we can say what we like, in this House and outside it, and freely criticise RTE, or any of its programmes, without this type of touchy tactic that has been used in the past. There are people out there who are thin-skinned where criticism is concerned.
There are certain areas to which attention is generally directed. They are mostly working-class areas. The bad aspects of those areas are projected while the good aspects are disregarded. Deputy Childers appeared on television the day after the protest about the Mansion House affair. I do not know whether this was the result of a rethink of the situation. In the case of ordinary programmes we know what happens. They do a programme six or 12 months afterwards giving the other side of the story, but they have already got their message across. In this way they do immense harm to many people in many areas. People have been deprived of employment because of references made on television to particular areas.
There was a programme done on Ballyfermot which was the lowest type of programme that could be produced. People were paid on that occasion to drink cider. I did not get an opportunity of asking on the subsequent programme whether the cider drinkers were paid. I asked them afterwards and I was told they received a fee, the same as the other people who appeared, including myself and others who appeared on the second programme. To give people a fee to have themselves photographed drinking cider or engaged in some other such activity is despicable. I hope it will not happen again. RTE may have learned a lesson from that programme. I do not think the Minister will stand over this type of approach, any more than he will stand over the use of hidden microphones. It was made known during the moneylending affair that concelaed microphones were used. I hope this will never happen again. It has not happened for some time. I want an assurance now that the Minister will not countenance this type of behaviour. The idea put forward in a television programme that a certain area is a trouble spot will stick in the minds of thousands of viewers. This will be very hard to erase, even by doing another programme, however good it may be. The second one never atones for the first one. This type of thing is mainly directed against people who live in local authority accommodation. The cameras do not go to "Snob Hill" and project the problems or indeed the activities there. Sometimes if they would just swing the cameras around they would get a different picture.
These are things that worry me and affect people in the areas I represent. We do not want a stigma attaching to any area as a result of a television programme. The particular programme to which I have referred was screened two years ago but many people still refer to it and at that time people were deprived of employment because of it. People have told me that they have used an aunt's or an uncle's address rather than their own because of how a particular area was projected on television. Young girls in offices were perturbed because of the image projected of their areas. I would ask the Minister to ensure that people are protected from some of the vultures that have been knocking around from time to time. They may be all gone. They may have changed their tune. If the Minister would indicate that this type of activity would not be countenanced by him I am sure his influential voice would go a long way and be heeded by many people in RTE.
I do not envy the Minister his job. He has an immense task in relation to the television service, which is attacked —justly and unjustly—by almost every section of the community. Much of the criticism will be directed at the Minister, sometimes for areas over which the Minister has no control. But there are areas over which he has control and his influential voice can indicate from time to time that certain fields must not be touched on or must be dealt with in a fair manner.
RTE have many credits on their side. If Mr. John Feeney's article is correct, it must be depressing for some people there, waiting for this breakthrough to get one programme with bite, one programme that will attract attention. Whatever the programme is, at all costs it must be put on. If there are problems such as that, they should be teased out so that the workers will be content. If the workers are content there will be greater co-operation and wider horizons. Where there is stagnation, where the morale is low and where there are groups of people competing with each other, there is bound to develop a situation in which the opportunities afforded by any programme to any individual or group will be grasped by that individual or group.
There are many other aspects of this Estimate that have been covered already. Some people are perturbed about the possibility of additional charges being levied in respect of broadcasting services. Of course if we want these extra services we must be prepared to pay for them but any increases must be within reason. There has been a suggestion that the television licence fee might be increased at some stage to £30. In replying to the debate, the Minister should indicate whether there is any foundation for that suggestion so that people can decide at an early stage whether they will be able to retain their television sets. I expect that the majority of people would continue to avail of the service but if the licence fee should be in the region of £30, there are many people in the working class category who could not afford to pay that amount. Any such increase would also have to be accompanied by an extension of the free television licence fee so that it would apply to many people other than old age pensioners.
I do not know to what extent components for the Post Office telephone services are manufactured here, if at all, but I am aware that most of the components used here are manufactured in such countries as Sweden and Germany. An effort should be made, either in the Department's workshops or elsewhere to set up a manufacturing concern for the production of these components. The fact that they are imported in such vast quantities indicates the justification for manufacturing at least some of them here. I am sure that disabled persons could be employed in any such industry. At present they are employed on such tasks as packing in the electrical goods industry.
I hope the Minister will examine these suggestions. Perhaps companies operating in the Shannon Free Airport area could with some adjustments, produce these components for the home market.
I shall not detain the House further except to say that the recent affair which has been given so much publicity was rather unfortunate for the Minister in that he was manoeuvred into a situation in which some of the blame will be thrust on him. I can only wish the Minister well for the future. I expect that his approach will differ from that taken by Ministers in the past. He will be dealing with different problems. I trust that he will endeavour to sort out the problems within the ambit of his Department which affect the day to day lives of the community and that the necessary services will be provided.
