I move:
That a sum not exceeding £48,619,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the period commencing on the 1st day of April, 1974, and ending on the 31st day of December, 1974, 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 certain grants-in-aid.
I would like to begin my speech by referring to the notes in relation to the Estimate which I have had circulated to Deputies. These notes contain a good deal of valuable information and I hope that Deputies will find them useful in their consideration of the Estimate for my Department. As the present Estimate covers a period of nine months only, this year's notes contain a comprehensive statement showing the variations between the 1973-74 Estimate and the Estimate prepared for 1974-75 from which the nine month's figures were derived.
As will be seen from page V of the abridged version of the Estimates volume, a net Estimate of £63,085,000 had been prepared for my Department for the 12 months ending 31st March, 1975, representing an increase of £7,299,000 on the total amount voted for 1973-74, including a Supplementary Estimate. The net amount required for the nine month period is £48,619,000. This amount does not, however, provide for the extra cost of the national pay agreement, 1974, which is operative from 1st June this year. That agreement was not finalised in time to enable its cost, in so far as the public service is concerned, to be distributed over the individual departmental Estimates, and a global provision has been made for it in a separate Estimate for Remuneration (No. 50).
The net Estimate for the nine months' period is slightly more than 75 per cent of the estimated expenditure for 12 months mainly because the two half-yearly moieties of £5.26 million in respect of subhead G— Telephone Capital Repayments—fall to be paid during the transitional period. That subhead which increases each year because of the continuing investment of capital in the telephone service shows an increase of £2 million over the amount provided in 1973-74.
I propose to confine my comments on other subheads to those where the figures for 12 months would show a substantial variation either in the total amount or as a percentage of the 1973-74 provisions.
The amount in subhead A for salaries, wages and allowances is £34,944,000 as against £42,019,000 voted in 1973-74. For 12 months the extra sum needed would be £4.573 million. The increase is mainly because of the provisions made for the cost of the second phase of the 14th round and for additional staff requirements chiefly for the telephone service.
Under subhead C £2,655,000 is being provided as against £3 million in 1973-74. On a 12 month basis the increase would be £870,000. The extra amount is mainly for higher expenditure on new sites and buildings, the cost of additional leased accommodation and higher charges for maintenance, electricity and fuel.
Under subhead F £19.5 million is needed. In a full year this would be £7.623 million more than in 1973-74. The increase here is to cover the extra cost of engineering stores and equipment and contract works arising from expansion of the telephone service.
Subhead J reflects the increased cost of higher pensions and gratuities following increased rates of pay. In a full year the extra provision required would be £436,000.
In subhead K—Commissions and Special Inquiries—only a nominal amount is being provided as the Broadcasting Review Committee have now completed their task. I shall refer again to that report later.
A provision of £2,860,000 is made under subhead L.1 for the ordinary grant to Radio Telefís Éireann in respect of net receipts from television licence fees during the nine months ending December next. The grant for the 12 months ending March next will be £510,000 more than the total amount voted last year, mainly because of the higher television licence fees which were introduced from 1st October, 1973. There is, of course, a corresponding increase in the amount paid into the Exchequer as extra receipts in respect of these fees.
Provision is being made under subhead L.2 for a new grant-in-aid of £50,000 to Radio Telefís Éireann in respect of the net receipts from wired broadcast relay licence fees. The gross receipts from these fees will also be paid into the Exchequer as extra receipts.
No grant is being provided this year for capital expenditure on Radio na Gaeltachta.
The provision under subhead L.3— £119,000—represents the balance of the grant due on installation of the new high-powered radio transmitter.
On the receipts side, a provision of £27,816,010 is made under subhead T for Appropriations in Aid. For a full year there would be an increase of £8.668 million over the amount provided in 1973-74. The increase is mainly attributable to higher expenditure on telephone development. I should, perhaps, explain that expenditure on telephone development is first charged to the ordinary subheads— principally subheads F and A and to a lesser extent subheads C and B— but the cost is subsequently recouped from telephone capital funds and brought in as an Appropriation in Aid.
In regard to the postal service the volume of letter traffic handled in 1973, at 466 million items, was about 5 per cent up on the previous year. Parcels handled totalled about ten million and were at virtually the same level as in 1972. The growth in the volume and value of business transacted at post office counters continued. In general a high quality of postal service was maintained during the year. Following the appeal of the Minister for Transport and Power for economy in petrol consumption during the period of restriction of supplies, postal collection services in Dublin, Dún Laoghaire and Cork were curtailed temporarily but the collections have now been restored.
During 1973 68 new motorised rural delivery services were introduced and there are now about 650 motorised services in operation, covering nearly 45 per cent of the total mileage travelled on rural postal delivery. The petrol crisis caused a temporary suspension of the establishment of new motorised services but the programme has now recommenced.
Because of housing and other developments in urban areas it was necessary to create 101 additional postman posts, mainly in the Dublin Postal District.
1973 was a good year for Irish philately, and revenue from identifiable philatelic sales was of the order of £130,000 or about 20 per cent higher than in the previous year. In 1974 seven special and commemorative stamps are being issued. The issue on 9th October next of a stamp to commemorate the centenary of the Universal Postal Union has a special significance for my Department. International relations in the postal field have always been particularly harmonious and the work of the Universal Postal Union, in which Ireland has taken an active part, has been a model of international co-operation.
The 1974 stamp programme also includes the Europe stamp, a stamp in the Contemporary Irish Art series, stamps to mark anniversaries of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, Oliver Goldsmith and the Irish Rugby Football Union and, finally, the Christmas stamp. I should like to take this opportunity of expressing my appreciation of the voluntary efforts of the committee, under the chairmanship of Fr. Donal O'Sullivan, which advises me on stamp design. I had the pleasure in 1973 of appointing the committee for a further three-year term. A special task which I have set the reconstituted committee is consideration of the replacement of the present series of definitive stamps.
There has in recent years been an upsurge of interest in Irish postage stamps and there is every indication that the growth of Irish philately will continue. In 1973 I announced the formation of a new committee to advise on ways of promoting interest in Irish stamps and postal history. I would like to thank the members and, in particular, the chairman, Mr. W.H. Walsh, for accepting my invitation to serve on the new committee. Members of the committee will be visiting some European countries which have more highly developed philatelic services than we have in order to examine the scope and range of the services they provide. I referred last year to a proposal to open a special Philatelic Office in the GPO in Dublin. This project is in hand and I am hopeful that the office will be ready later this year.
Savings services—details regarding new investments, repayments and totals remaining invested for the savings media with which my Department are directly concerned are contained in the notes circulated to Deputies. The notes also give particulars of the growth of Trustee Savings Bank business.
I should like to express my appreciation of the excellent work done by the National Savings Committee in the cultivation of the savings habit, particularly through their promotion of group savings schemes.
In dealing with remittance and agency services it is noted that the number of money orders issued in 1973 was 1.04 million, or about the same as in the previous year but the value was up from £55.2 million to £70.3 million. 12.3 million postal orders to the value of £15.5 million were issued in 1973; these figures represent an increase of about 10 per cent in number and about 7 per cent in value on the 1972 figures.
Agency service payments made by the Post Office, mainly on behalf of the Department of Social Welfare, increased from £105 million in 1972 to £136 million in 1973. Post offices took part as usual in the sales of prize bonds, handling about 28 per cent of the total collected in 1973.
Good progress has been made with the Department's building programme, which includes the provision of many new buildings and extensions for telephone exchanges to cater for telephone development, and new post offices and modernisation schemes needed because of expanding business generally.
A new post office has been completed at Nenagh and a new district sorting office at Phibsboro. Major improvement and extension schemes have been carried out at Blackrock Post Office (County Dublin) and Harmonstown District Sorting Office (Dublin). Work is in progress on new post offices at Dungarvan, Listowel and Phibsboro (Dublin), a new district sorting office at Baldoyle, (County Dublin) and improvements to Castle-bar and Kilmallock post offices. A contract has been placed for the erection of a new post office at Donegal and work will commence shortly. Plans are in hands for the erection of new post offices at Shannon, Longford, Mullingar, Clonmel and Tipperary and for major improvements to the post offices at Ballyhaunis, Boyle, Castlerea, Ceanannus Mór and Cobh.
New telephone exchange buildings or extensions were erected at 24 provincial centres. In Dublin new buildings or extensions have been provided for six exchanges. Work is in progress on 31 new exchange buildings or extensions to existing exchanges and tenders have been invited for 55 more.
Work continues on the acquisition of sites and planning of further buildings throughout the country.
I turn now to the telecommunications side of the Department's operations.
Lists of the principal development works completed in 1973-74 have been included in the notes circulated to Deputies and I propose therefore to mention only the major ones here.
An automatic telephone exchange of 10,000 subscribers' lines was brought into service in Rathmines (Dublin) in replacement of an older installation; 81 automatic exchanges and 104 manual exchanges were extended in capacity; and 27 manual exchanges were converted to automatic working. Two other major exchanges completed late last year — a 10,000 line exchange at Ballsbridge and a 2,000 line automatic exchange at Clonmel—were brought into operation in April.
Mobile automatic exchanges—the first to be used here—were brought into service in three areas where there were special difficulties in the way of early completion of conventional exchanges. A number of other mobile exchanges are due to be delivered later this year and next year.
In all, new and replacement equipment was installed for 26,500 automatic lines as against 22,000 in 1972-73.
Major exchange works in progress at the end of the year included the international telephone exchange due to be opened in mid-June; two new automatic exchanges to be brought into service in the GPO and Tallaght later in the year; another at Santry due early next year; a 20,000-line exchange at Crown Alley, an automatic exchange at Monaghan and conversion schemes from manual to automatic working at Cavan and Fermoy. Exchange extension works are in hand at Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Mullingar, Portlaoise, Tralee and numerous other centres.
Over 2,300 extra trunk circuits were brought into service between the larger centres and some 3,000 local circuits were provided between the larger centres and their dependents. These figures compare with 1,600 and 2,200 in the year before, a total increase of nearly 40 per cent. The schemes completed during the year included new microwave links between Dublin and Belfast, Limerick and Portlaoise, Portlaoise and Waterford and between Cork and Tralee; and coaxial cables between Waterford and Clonmel, Cork and Fermoy and between Tralee and Killarney.
In 1973-74 demand for new exchange lines was some 12 per cent higher than in the previous year. Although 30,000 new lines were connected, 3,000 more than last year, gross waiting applications numbered some 41,000, an increase of 9,000 during the year. Allowing for a normal proportion of applications which are cancelled or not proceeded with, the number of effective orders on hand on 31st March is estimated at 36,000 of which some 4,000 were with the engineers for attention. As in previous years, demand for new lines exceeded the Department's ability to meet it in full. I shall return to this later. Damage caused by the severe flooding and storms in December-January necessitated diversion of construction staff, from the installation of telephones to repair work and later to plant overhaul.
An extensive programme of underground cabling in cities and towns was carried out during the year. Arrears of main and underground cabling in the Dublin and Cork areas are still very heavy and constitute one of the principal obstacles in the way of speedy clearance of waiting applications. The programme is being pressed ahead and expanded to the limits of the skilled staff resources available. Some 205 telephone kiosks were provided. Call traffic during the year is estimated at 450 million, 388 million local and 62 million trunk calls, as compared with a total of some 405 million last year. The numbers of local calls grew by an estimated 10 per cent, internal trunk calls by 14 per cent, calls to Britain by 18 per cent and calls to continental Europe by some 40 per cent. These figures indicate the greatly increased use being made of the system and the scope for a soaring rate of growth if all the necessary facilities were there to meet public demand quickly and fully. We must, therefore, treat telecommunications as a rapidly expanding sector of the economy and plan accordingly.
There are now some 1,300 cross-Channel telephone circuits in operation. Orders have been placed to provide 1,250 more within the next two years. Arrangements are also in train to double again—to more than 5,000 —the capacity of the cross-Channel routes by 1977-78.
Call traffic with the Continent and overseas is rising steeply. The present number of direct circuits to continental and North American centres will be almost doubled to 200 shortly when the new international exchange is opened in Dublin and this initial provision will be steadily expanded. We have 30 circuits to the USA now. It is envisaged that at least 700 circuits will be required within the next 15 years. Apart from getting more satellite circuits via the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, in which Ireland has an investment share, we have in the course of the past year acquired rights to blocks of circuits in the recently completed Cantat 2 cable laid between Britain and Canada and in a further major transatlantic cable, TAT 6, due to be completed in 1976.
The new international exchange is a special installation with the technical facilities for dealing with long-distance calls without the assistance of an operator in the distant countries concerned. The operators in the new exchange will have facilities for dialling into the automatic networks of a number of European and extra-European countries. Operators in the countries concerned abroad will have similar facilities for dialling into our automatic system. With increased numbers of international circuits and specially trained operators, all of whom have a good working knowledge of French, we look forward to handling call requests for long-distance calls much more promptly.
Starting about the end of the year, subscriber-dialling of long-distance calls will be introduced gradually. Subscribers in certain central city exchanges in Dublin will, in the first instance, be given facilities for dialling to Belgium. The facilities will be extended to other countries and other exchanges as quickly as the technical equipment can be provided.
Telephone capital expenditure during the year was £24 million approximately, of which £7½ million was advanced by the European Investment Bank. Provisional figures of the sub-division of the £24 million under the main heads of expenditure are: subscribers' installations, including local cable distribution, £10 million; exchange equipment £6.7 million; trunk lines and equipment £5.2 million; buildings and miscellaneous £2.1 million.
The value of orders placed for exchanges, trunk systems and so forth, at the end of the year was about £50 million. This equipment will come into service over the next two to three years. The Telephone Capital Estimate for the nine-month financial period to end December is £24 million which is the same as the amount spent in the last full financial year. The provision for the financial year 1974-75 is £33 million. This compares with a corresponding provision of £19 million for 1973-74, an increase of more than 73 per cent.
It will be clear from what I have said and from the material in the notes for Deputies that much is being done to make good the deficiencies of the system. On the other hand, much remains to be done, particularly to eliminate the congestion and other difficulties which affect the Dublin automatic system and the STD network and to expand the Department's capacity to provide telephones within a reasonable time. I share the impatience of many that progress is not more rapid. I should like to promise substantial improvements quickly but I do not propose to do so.
When the Telephone Capital Bill was before this House some months ago, I outlined the magnitude of the work to be done, including the arrears which had grown up over the years, and I pointed out that progress is dependent not only on finance but on the time required to increase the numbers of skilled staff, to provide new buildings, to install new equipment and so on. Arrangements towards these ends have been going ahead with all practicable speed. The introduction of new procedures and better organisation leading to improved efficiency and higher productivity are obviously important. I shall refer to this aspect again elsewhere.
The highest priority is being given to raising the general quality of service even at the cost where necessary of restricting for the time being the intake of new subscribers. Marked improvements have been effected in particular areas as extra equipment and trunk lines have been brought into service. This kind of gradual progress will continue for some time. It will be accelerated as much as possible until general improvement can be achieved.
Special attention is being given to relief of congestion and removal of difficulties in the Dublin automatic system, because they affect not only local calls in Dublin but the large numbers of trunk calls made to Dublin numbers by subscribers elsewhere in the country and abroad. As more replacement and relief equipment at present being installed or on order is brought into service, the numbers of unsuccessful call attempts should fall progressively.
The number of telegrams handled in 1973-74, about 1,155,000, was slightly greater than in the previous year. The telephone and telex services and circuits rented from the Department are being availed of to an increasing extent for the transmission of data. More than 100 terminal systems are being rented by telephone subscribers for the communication of data over telephone lines and demand for the service is growing rapidly. During the year the market study on the future development of data communications in Europe, commissioned by 17 European administrations including my Department, was completed. The consultants estimated that data business handled here would increase 25-fold between the base year, 1972, and 1985.
The telex service continued its rapid growth and the number of subscribers increased by 25 per cent to more than 2,200 at the end of March last. This was 2½ times the figure for early 1970. A major new computer-controlled telex exchange is at present operating under test conditions in Dublin and is expected to be fully in service shortly. Another telex exchange in Dublin is envisaged towards the end of the decade and planning is already under way.
As Deputies are aware, the Department publish commercial accounts which present their position as a trading concern. It is largely on the basis of these accounts that financial policy, including the fixing of charges, has been determined.
In the full version of the Estimates volume, Appendix C to the Estimate will provide a summary of the commercial account results for the four years 1968-69 to 1971-72 and provisional figures for 1972-73. There was an overall deficit of £1,422,000 approximately in 1971-72. The provisional accounts for 1972-73 show an overall deficit of £3,509,000 made up of deficits of £774,000 on the postal service, £393,000 on the telegraph service and £2,342,000 on the telephone service.
The figures I have quoted have been determined after charging interest on the entire net capital investment in the Post Office and after charging depreciation on a replacement basis. Reliable figures for the different services for 1973-74 will not be available for some considerable time, but present indications are that the overall deficit for that year will increase to about £4.5 million.
As I said last year, many uneconomic services are provided by the Department on social grounds, and a case can be made for the payment of a subsidy from the Exchequer in respect of such services but there must be some limit to the extent to which certain Post Office services are subsidised by the taxpayers.
Deputies will remember that in his budget statement of 16th May, 1973, the Minister for Finance announced that certain Post Office charges would be increased, from 1st July, 1973, in the case of postal charges and from 1st October, 1973, in the case of telephone charges. He explained that a deficit of the order of £7½ million would have to be made good from the Exchequer in 1973-74 if corrective measures were not taken. It was estimated that the revised charges would bring in extra revenue of £3½ million in 1973-74 and almost £8 million in 1974-75. Experience since then has indicated that these estimates were reliable. However, in spite of the extra revenue the overall deficit in the current year will be substantially higher than in 1973-74 because costs are being pushed up by inflation all the time. In view of what I said earlier about the extra costs of pay increases arising from the 15th round, Deputies will not be surprised to hear that the deficit is expected to rise still further in future years if charges are not increased again.
I come now to staff matters. I should like first to put on record my thanks to the staff of the Department for the way in which they upheld over the past year the Post Office tradition of service to the public. I wish, in particular, to express my appreciation of the work of those members of the engineering staff who, under very trying weather conditions, restored the telecommunications services disrupted by the heavy storms in January this year.
At this stage too, I want to refer to the recent bomb blasts in Dublin and Monaghan. I regret to say that three members of the staff of the Department were among those who lost their lives in the Dublin blasts, and that the injured also included Post Office personnel. I would like to express to the families and relatives of those who died, and to those who were injured, my personal sympathy and the sympathy of the whole staff of my Department. It is my earnest wish, and I am sure that of all Deputies, that those who were injured will soon recover from the effects of their terrible experience.
One of the bombs damaged the Department's office in Marlboro' Street, Dublin. Monaghan Post Office and Exchange also suffered bomb damage on the same day. I would like to pay a warm tribute to the staffs of the Department and of the Office of Public Works who did excellent work following the damage sustained at both centres. In particular I would like to express my thanks to the telephone staff at Monaghan, who, under the most trying circumstances, maintained an emergency communications service on this sad occasion.
This Estimate provides for 25,287 posts which were in existence on 1st January, 1974, and a provision of £845,000 has also been included for extra posts which will be needed before the end of the year. The number of posts on the authorised establishment increased by 1,561 between 1st April, 1973, and 1st January, 1974. The great majority of these additional posts are required for the telecommunications services.
I have already mentioned that the Estimate does not provide for the extra cost of the 1974 national agreement, that is apart from the provision made for the second phase of the 14th round which is now to be replaced by the first phase of the new agreement, the 15th Round, so far as Post Office staff are concerned. Perhaps I should say a little more about pay increases now. The staff in the various grades, like other employees in the community generally, benefit under the national rounds of pay increases. They also secure other increases in pay or improvements in their conditions of employment where these are necessary to bring them into line with comparable groups of employees inside or outside the Civil Service. The great majority of them are at present covered by the first phase of the 14th round national agreement, which will terminate on 31st May this year. The first phase of that agreement, and other improvements in pay or conditions recently conceded, have added about £3¾ million a year to the Department's wages bill. The first phase of the 15th round will come into operation on 1st June, 1974, in substitution for the second phase of the 14th round which was due to come into operation on that date. It is estimated that the various phased improvements in pay under the 1974 national agreement will ultimately add a further £17 million a year approximately to the wages bill. In the nine months ending December next the extra cost of that agreement including that of the 2nd phase of the 14th round which it supersedes, will be about £3.5 million.
This will increase to about £12.5 million in 1975, to £15.8 million in 1976 and to £17 million in 1977 when the full effect of the 1974 agreement will be felt. Meanwhile that agreement will have ended in June, 1975. It seems fairly certain that further increases in pay will be sought then.
I should, perhaps, add that the very proper efforts in these agreements to improve the relative position of the lower paid, of juveniles and of women have meant that the cost to the Department has been higher than the adult percentage increases, those usually mentioned in public discussions, would indicate. While these improvements are socially desirable, the community will have to accept that Post Office services are going to cost much more.
There is another development which will also put up staff costs. With the emergence of national wage agreements securing general increases for all staff, unions are in a position to concentrate on claims for special increases for more pay or improved conditions supplemental to the increases provided for in the national agreements. Indeed, there are only a few grades in the Department at present on whose behalf claims of such kinds have not been presented or signalled. Included in these are claims for considerable additional compensation for working what are described as unsocial hours, that is working at night or early in the morning or at weekends; and, of course, if existing standards of service are to be maintained, much of the Department's activities have to be carried out at night and at weekends.
The Department have always been conscious of the need to improve efficiency and productivity so as to keep costs as low as possible. Staff wages and related costs form the major part of the Department's expenses and it is in this area that any large economies must be looked for. On the postal side, no major economies can be achieved in the short term without a curtailment of services and the discharge of staff. On the telecommunications side, there is rather greater scope for improving productivity with automation and technical developments generally. Continuous discussions take place with representatives of engineering grades on how efficiency in engineering operations can be improved by increased mechanisation, better organisation of the work, and so on. I am hopeful that more progress will be made in the future that will be beneficial both to the public and to the staff.
The Department at present employ some 240 professional engineers. In former years the Department had difficulty in recruiting their requirements of professional engineers but the position is now reasonably satisfactory. The Department's scholarship schemes which were designed to supplement the intake of graduates are going well. So far 55 scholarships have been awarded and further scholarships will be awarded this year. Twenty-five students who were awarded scholarships have graduated and taken up duty as engineers in the Department.
Staff training is receiving more attention and the Department are investing more in it than ever before. On the engineering side in particular where there are already very considerable training programmes in existence, involving much use of regional technical college facilities, a further substantial and rapid build-up of training facilities is under way to meet the planned expansion of the telephone service over the next few years. As at present, most of the specialised training needed by the staff will have to be provided within the Department but the help of the regional technical colleges will also be availed of to the maximum extent.
Work on the provision of a new engineering training headquarters building in Dublin is due to begin later this year, and the training accommodation provided at Cork and Sligo is being extended. Sites for additional training centres are being sought at Limerick and Sligo and in the midlands. The instructor staff within the Department is also being steadily built up, and the training programmes are under review to ensure that they provide adequately and economically for the needs of the service.
The recruitment and training of the telephonists needed to cater for extra traffic and to fill vacancies is another major and continuing problem each year. Between 1st May, 1973, and 1st May, 1974, the number of telephonists employed, excluding casuals, increased from about 3,800 to 4,500. The extra staff was composed of 450 day operators and 250 night operators. Since September, 1973, some 1,250 telephonists have been recruited and they have already been trained or will have completed their training before the summer traffic pressures build up.
During the year experiments with programmed-learning for the training of telephone operators were begun but it will be some time before it will be possible to form a conclusion on the value of this type of training.
A new departure during the year was that of French language training of some 80 operators and supervisors who will be staffing the new international exchange in Dublin which is to be opened shortly. Now that the Department will have an international exchange for the first time, the Department's staff in the exchange will be expected to have a fluent knowledge of French. Training courses were provided by the Department to bring staff volunteering for service in the new exchange up to the required level of competence.
In addition, the French telecommunications administration very kindly agreed to provide a fortnight's finishing course in the international exchange in Paris for this staff to give them first hand experience of operating in an international exchange through the medium of French. I am confident that this staff will be well up to the accepted international standards. I should like to put on record here my appreciation of the co-operation extended us by the French PTT at all levels concerned and my recognition that many officers in that administration who were in direct touch with the training operators made very considerable personal efforts to ensure that their stay was both useful and pleasant.
The Department's computer was brought into operation in May last year and is currently being used to process savings bank work and certain aspects of telephone accounts billing. Preparatory work on the computerisation of certain other aspects of telephone billing and of telex billing, national instalment savings work, and the calculation of wages of engineering staff, is well advanced, and it is expected that the change-over to the processing of at least some of these by computer will begin this year.
The firm of consultants who were commissioned in 1972 to examine the Department's accounting system have furnished individual reports covering the various sectors of the Department's operations. Departmental consideration of these reports is proceeding and further discussions on them will be held with the consultants before they furnish their final report. They expect to be able to do this within the next few months.
When replying to the debate on last year's Estimate I indicated that I was in favour of the recommendation of the National Prices Commission for the establishment of a Users' Council for the Post Office. As I explained in reply to a Parliamentary Question on 12th July, 1973, the council could not be set up until certain Government Departments and other organisations had been consulted. These consultations have since taken place and the Government recently approved my proposals regarding the composition of the council and the main provisions of its constitution.
The council, whose functions will be advisory, will comprise a chairman and 17 other members. The chairman and three members of the council will be chosen by the Minister. Seven of the remaining members will be appointed by the Minister on the nomination of bodies representative of workers, employers, including farmers, consumers, local authorities and the Gaeltacht. The other seven members will be appointed by the Minister on the nomination of large users. All members, however, will serve in a personal, and not in a representative capacity.
I will be writing shortly to various organisations inviting them to put forward persons for consideration for appointment to the council.
Turning to broadcasting, I will deal first with the developments which took place since the last debate on the Estimate for my Department and then go on to talk about the future.
RTE's Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for 1972-73 was published in December, 1973. There was a surplus of £268,000 in that year. The indications are that there will be a surplus of over £200,000 in 1973-74, also. A bigger surplus might have been expected in 1973-74 because of the introduction of a special colour licence of £15 and an increase in the monochrome licence from £7.50 to £9 with effect from 1st October last. However, RTE in common with other organisations, have had to contend with rapidly rising costs. Towards the end of the financial year they were also faced with a decline in the amount of time purchased by advertisers and this has continued into the current financial year. RTE have stated that even with the most stringent economies, they will be unable to avoid a deficit this year unless the licence fees are increased further. They submitted proposals about this very recently and these will be considered on their merits.
My Department devoted a lot of effort during the year to trying to ensure that all those who have television sets pay the appropriate licence fees. The provisions of the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1972, which concern television dealers were a considerable help in this regard.
On the capital side it is estimated that RTE spent a total of a little over £1 million in 1973-74, nearly 50 per cent of which was financed from the Exchequer. A final grant of £23,000 was made in respect of expenditure incurred on Radio na Gaeltachta and a grant of £256,000 was made towards the cost of the high-powered transmitter which is to replace the Athlone transmitter. In addition £169,000 was made available by way of repayable advances for general broadcasting works.
RTE's capital programme for the nine months to end December, 1974, has been settled at £1.144 million. Roughly £289,000 is for capital works on the radio side and £855,000 for the television side, mainly for additional TV production facilities and initial expenditure on the second transmitter network.
Deputies will probably have seen the announcement I made last autumn about the Government's decision to go ahead with provision of a network of transmitters and radio links for a second TV programme. This network will provide the necessary transmission facilities irrespective of what programme service is to be transmitted. The decision to start work on this is an earnest of the Government's intention to provide a choice of programmes as quickly as possible, particularly for viewers in single channel areas who have access to RTE only at present.
I also announced recently that duplicate transmissions on 405 lines from the Dublin and Sligo transmitters will cease within the next two years or so. This will result in a considerable saving in the cost of the second network which would otherwise have to be provided mainly on UHF.
There have been fairly extensive developments in regard to cable television during the year. At my request the Broadcasting Review Committee prepared an interim report about the development of cable television. Most of the recommendations in that report were accepted and have been implemented. The Wireless Telegraphy (Wired Broadcast Relay Licence) Regulations which provide for the control and licensing of cable television systems came into effect on the 1st April, 1974, and the 500 limit on the number of households which may be connected to a mast has been abolished.
Competitions for exclusive licences for provision of cable systems in eight provincial centres in the multi-channel areas are under way and arrangements are well advanced for competitions in a further six centres.
The question of holding competitions in 15 more centres is under consideration. I expect that the results of the first competitions will be announced very soon. In Dublin city the intention is to hold competitions for exclusive licences to serve the areas on the perimeter of the city where large scale housing development is planned. Licences are in course of being issued in accordance with agreements reached in detailed and protracted discussions with all the main cable operators in respect of the rest of the Dublin area. It will, of course, be some time before the companies will be able to meet all the demands for cable television in the city.
The statutory regulations provide for payment by cable operators of a licence fee comprising 15 per cent of the rental revenue. This will be paid over to RTE, less the cost of collection, to compensate to some extent for the loss of advertising revenue which is bound to follow from the more intensive development of cable television. Subhead L.2 of this Estimate provides for a grant of £50,000 in respect of these receipts but amendment of the Broadcasting Authority Act will be necessary before payment can be made to RTE.
I mentioned earlier the introduction of a special colour television licence fee. This stemmed from my decision to remove the restrictions on development of colour television by RTE, as recommended by the Broadcasting Review Committee in an interim report on colour television in July, 1973. About 50 per cent of RTE transmissions are now in colour and RTE hope to be in a position to transmit most of their home produced programmes in colour during 1976 provided the necessary finances are available.
Many Deputies have expressed concern from time to time about the poor quality of reception of RTE television programmes in various parts of the country. I am glad to say that it has been decided to make repayable advances of over £1 million available from the Exchequer to finance a large scale RTE programme for improving reception in those areas where it is less than satisfactory at present. This money will be regarded as over and above normal broadcasting capital needs. However, owing to the heavy programme of capital works RTE are facing over the next few years and the varied demands on scarce capital, it will probably be four to five years before the programme for improving TV reception is completed. RTE should be in a position fairly soon to say when the various districts can expect to have improved reception. I must enter one caveat. Even when this programme is completed there will still be some small pockets throughout the country where, because of, for example, unusual topographical features, and the scattered nature of the households, it would be impracticable for economic reasons to improve reception by providing transmitters or transposers.
During the year, the term of office of Comhairle Radio na Gaeltachta came to an end. I reappointed the members of the old comhairle and added three new members, including a member of the staff who was nominated by his colleagues following an election confined to the staff of Radio na Gaeltachta. I also appointed two other advisory committees under the Broadcasting Authority Act, a Complaints Advisory Committee and a committee to advise on the best use of the Cork studios. Deputies will probably have seen the announcements about these in the daily papers. The appointment of the Complaints Advisory Committee is an interim arrangement pending new broadcasting legislation in which I intend to provide for statutory structures for dealing with complaints about television and radio programmes. I will have more to say about the proposed broadcasting legislation later on.
I am anxious to see experiments in local broadcasting. Radio is a particularly suitable medium for this and Cork where there is an existing studio seems to be the obvious place for experiments of this kind. The Cork Advisory Committee will, I am sure, have much useful advice to offer the RTE Authority on this question.
This might be an appropriate time to mention developments in the field of radio before moving on to the question of the future of our broadcasting services. The Radio na Gaeltachta service was extended to the country as a whole on VHF last Summer. I understand it has achieved considerable popularity with the people of the Gaeltachtaí and is competing very successfully with television there.
It had been expected that the new high powered radio transmitter to replace the Athlone transmitter would be in service before the end of 1974 which would be well ahead of schedule. RTE say that this may not now be possible because of a hitch regarding the mast for the new transmitter which is being put right by the contractor concerned. However, I know that everything possible is being done by RTE to get the new transmitter into service at the earliest practical date.
In introducing my Department's Estimate last year I said that I intended to review the limits on radio transmission hours to see if greater choice could be afforded to the listener without excessive cost to the licence holders and without pre-empting any views the Broadcasting Review Committee might have on the development of the radio service. Deputies will probably be aware of the result of this review. A choice of programmes is now being provided on VHF on a much more extensive scale than in the past.
I intend to review the situation again shortly to see whether it is possible to provide a further substantial increase in radio programme choice, without detriment to other broadcasting priorities, thus reaping the benefit of the considerable capital expenditure on radio facilities in recent years.
The report of the Broadcasting Review Committee, set up in June, 1971, was presented to me at the end of April of this year. I thank the committee both collectively and individually for their work on the report and for the time they voluntarily devoted to it. It will be my duty, in commenting on the report to criticise certain aspects of it. I hope my comments on those aspects of the report will not be taken as reflecting on the distinguished individuals who made up the committee. We are all aware that the report of a committee does not always reflect the sum of the abilities of the individuals who make up the committee. Especially where political judgements are to some extent involved, the judgements of committee members may have a tendency to cancel one another out, so that unanimity is achieved only at the price of a certain incompleteness. It is possible, though I have no means of knowing, that some such factor as this may have been responsible for some regrettable lacunae in the report presented to me.
My predecessor, Deputy Gerard Collins, set up the Broadcasting Review Committee on 17th June, 1971, with the following terms of reference: "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". Thus the committee was assigned two main tasks: to review the progress of RTE since 1960 and to make appropriate recommendations for its future development.
I shall speak first, therefore, of the report in its aspects as a review of progress from 1960 up to this year. The three years during which the review committee sat were among the most momentous years in the modern history of Ireland. Broadcasting played a significant and controversial part in the events of those years. It both reflected and affected in various ways the often tragic events unrolling in this island. For example almost all the leading figures in the events of these years were from time to time interviewed on television and radio. At the same time broadcasting and broadcasters were criticised from a number of different angles for, as it was suggested, failing in this critical historical situation to rise to the level of the responsibilities placed on them by statute. The last Government came to take the view that these criticisms, or some of them, were justified and used its statutory powers to take certain drastic actions affecting RTE.
It might be thought, therefore, that the review committee had a unique opportunity afforded it in reviewing, in particular, that part of the progress of broadcasting in Ireland which was taking place under its eyes. A critical in-depth review of how broadcasting covered these events, and how these events affected broadcasting, could have been of interest and service to broadcasters themselves, to the authority, to the responsible Minister, to Parliament, to the public generally in this country and also to people in every part of the world concerned with the potential of broadcasting and the use of that potential. Unfortunately the present report does not contain such a review.
At the end of the introductory chapter of the report, section 1.13, the committee indicate the method by which they will discharge their responsibility under the first part of their terms of reference. I quote:
Rather than attempt to review in detail in a separate Chapter the progress of RTE, the Committee decided that this review could appropriately be associated with its comments on particular aspects of the service throughout the Report.
The most critical and sensitive aspect of broadcasting perhaps at any time, and certainly in a disturbed and eventful period, is the handling of news and current affairs. The committee's review of the progress of broadcasting in that area, therefore has to be looked for in chapter 15 of the report "News and Current Affairs". This is a short chapter taking up six of the report's nearly 200 pages. As a review of progress in relation to these aspects of broadcasting over these years it is surprisingly incomplete. It leaves out, for example, all mention of the directive issued by my predecessor under section 31 (1) in October, 1971—a few months after the committee was set up —and of the guidelines drawn up by the authority to give effect to this directive. It also omits all mention of the dismissal by the previous Government of the entire RTE Authority in November, 1972, under section 6 of the Broadcasting Act. The chapter devotes nearly half of its total space to the inquiry into a programme on illegal money lending which it describes as "an event of special importance". The inquiry was no doubt important but one may wonder why it seems to have been considered more important, within the committee's terms of reference, than the dismissal of the entire authority for supposed failure to discharge their responsibilities under the Broadcasting Authority Act.
The committee may, perhaps, have felt that it would not be appropriate for them to comment on the actions of a Government, although their terms of reference did not restrict them in that respect, but they could at least have recorded major actions impinging on broadcasting. At any rate, in a review of progress of broadcasting during the period, the report should surely have faced the very important question of whether the authority had actually discharged their statutory duty in implementing the directive. To do so would have required the exploration of a whole range of sensitive issues of concern to everyone with responsibilities in relation to broadcasting. Such an exploration could have been of great value, but obviously it could not have been undertaken once the decision not to refer to these transactions at all had been taken.
Although this chapter does not refer to the main events in our broadcasting history in recent years it contains comments on the handling of news and current affairs. These comments are severe but vague: an unfortunate combination.
Paragraph 15.9 says:
Though much of the reporting and commentary, particularly in the past two years or so, has been well balanced, the Committee cannot regard RTE's treatment of Northern Ireland affairs throughout the period since 1968 as having conformed to an adequate standard of objectivity and impartiality. It has, on the contrary, exemplified many of the regrettable tendencies noted in paragraph 15.4 above.
Paragraph 15.4 says:
The main questions that appear to arise regarding RTE's performance in the field of news in the past are whether the amount of attention given to news has been excessive or inadequate, whether the material has been properly selected, and whether the presentation has been free from distortion. The tests are proper selection, accuracy, objectivity and impartiality. The obstacles that may hamper the provision of a satisfactory news service are for midable and include external pressures, neglect of background and context, lack of detail, bias, distortion, sensationalism, the crowding out of moderate by extreme opinions and the temptation to select items for television news for the visual excitement, or because film of them is available, rather than because of their real news value. The very vividness of the medium of television, which can provide an increased sense of the actuality of events, enhances the risks of exaggeration and distortion. It is generally accepted that television is prone to suffer from the cramping effect of preference for news items in relation to which it can show illustrative material, unlike radio, which enjoys greater possibilities of immediacy, flexibility and comprehensiveness.
No examples are given, nor is there any indication to show in what direction the committee believed that those responsible deviated from their duty of objectivity and impartiality. RTE have been accused of bias both by people who think they are biased in favour of the IRA and those who hold them to be biased against the republican movement. It would be possible for a committee, including some people who took one of these views and some who took the other, to agree on the general proposition that RTE was biased. Such a general proposition, unaccompanied by examples or indications of the bias is, therefore, worthless.
I have said enough to indicate that I consider the report to be seriously defective in its discharge of the first part of its terms of reference, the review of progress. I shall now pass to the recommendations contained in the report. I shall welcome the expression of the views of the House on the committee's recommendations, which are summarised in chapter 25 of the report. I have also sought the views of the RTE Authority and of a number of other interested bodies. I should say that some of the committee's proposals, which are recapitulated from their interim reports, have already been implemented by me. As I have mentioned, I have implemented almost all the recommendations of the committee in regard to cable television including the abolition of the 500 limit and I have implemented the recommendations about colour television. I thank the committee for these recommendations, the implementation of which is, I think, generally welcomed by the public.
My present views about the implementation of other recommendations of the committee are subject to modifications in the light of comments made in this House and by the RTE Authority and the other bodies I have referred to. However, it may be useful to the House to have at this stage an indication of my present thinking on some of the more important recommendations. Other recommendations will no doubt be referred to in the debate and I shall have occasion to deal with comments on them.
The committee recommends in chapter 3 that there should be a legislative declaration of the purpose of broadcasting which would replace the present section 17 of the Act. I am, as I have made clear before, in sympathy with the idea that wording used in section 17 of the Broadcasting Act needs to be widened, to go beyond "restoring the Irish language and preserving and developing the national culture".
The phrase used by the Broadcasting Review Committee "safeguarding, strengthening and enriching the cultural social and economic fabric of the whole of Ireland" seems to me to give a wider perspective which I welcome. However, I am a little concerned at the use of the word "purpose" in this context.
The 1960 Act draws what seems to me to be a healthy distinction between the function of RTE in establishing and maintaining a national television and sound broadcasting service and the duty of RTE to fulfil certain obligations while carrying out that function. The committee themselves recognise that the ideals they indicate may never be fully attainable.
Rather than lay down for RTE a purpose which may never be attainable, it is better, I feel, to spell out in legislation the values which we feel should guide them while carrying out their function to maintain the national radio and television services.
The committee recommend in chapter 4 the replacement of the present RTE Authority by a commission which they say would be an "impartial, authoritative, and effective organ of supervision which would promote creativity and could not fail to have beneficial effects on the standards of broadcasting".
They recommend that this proposed commission should have a full-time chairman and a separate staff, which might strengthen their influence. On the other hand, they seem to envisage that the proposed commission would be completely divorced from the day-to-day business of providing and managing the radio and television services.
It would seem to me that the kind of public trustee control exercised by a commission of this kind would of necessity be less immediate and therefore considerably weaker than that exercised by the present authority which has direct responsibility for maintaining a national broadcasting service.
I do not believe that public trustee control should be weakened and I would hope that most members of the Oireachtas would agree with that view.
The detachment of the commission from direct responsibility for broadcasting would of course make for impartiality and the report says that this would have "avoided the expense and strains of the Moneylending Inquiry". This implies that the committee thought that the authority had too readily, if understandably, "taken the part of the programme makers thus leading to intervention by the Government".
Such detachment might have that advantage. However since it is recommended that this commission should have a third of its members elected by the staff of RTE, outside observers might not expect it to be less ready to take the part of the programme makers than an authority, all of whose members were appointed by the Government.
Also in its chapter 4 on structures, the report recommends that there should be statutory provision for Government directives, that any use of such directives should be public, clear, specific and should be subject to subsequent parliamentary confirmation and review. This approach to the problems raised by section 31 (1) of the 1960 Act seems to me to have much to commend it. Indeed, I have already spoken somewhat in that sense in this House.
The reference to parliamentary confirmation and review offers the opportunity for the Government, the broadcasters, and the people at large to judge whether such a direction reflects merely a party political purpose or whether it embodies a feeling shared by the overwhelming majority of public representatives.
The fact is that the unsatisfactory nature of the present legislation derives not merely from the blanket character of section 31 (1) but also from the draconian powers conferred on the Government by section 6 of the Act— the power to dismiss the authority at any time with no reason given. I have been somewhat surprised to notice that in public discussion of these issues there is a great deal of discussion of section 31 (1) but little or nothing is said about the more drastic and, to my mind, more dangerous section 6.
However, whatever the priorities between them, it is evident that the combination of section 31 (1) and section 6 is capable of abuse. For example if a Minister puts pressure on the authority, with party-political ends in mind, the authority is aware that, if it resists this pressure, it can be removed overnight. This is obviously an undesirable situation. In the new legislation which I shall introduce before the end of this year I plan among other things to remove the present section 6 and to provide that the authority shall hold office for a fixed term and shall not be removeable during that period except upon resolutions passed by both Houses of the Orieachtas on a motion for specifically stated derelictions from the authority's statutory duties. In framing new legislative provisions to replace the existing section 31 (1) I shall take into account the relevant recommendations in chapter 4 of the committee's report:
4.5 (a) Specific statutory requirements laid down by the Oireachtas in the public interest, combined with freedom of operation within these constraints.
4.5 (c) Statutory provision for Government directives; any use of such directives should be public, clear and specific and should be subject to subsequent parliamentary confirmation and review. The views of the operating body on any such directive should be available to the Houses of the Oireachtas.
In general it is my intention that the new legislation, while fully guarding against the danger of the use of broadcasting for subversion of democratic institutions and incitement to violence shall also provide proper safeguards against abuse of statutory powers in relation to broadcasting for party-political purposes. The legislation will in fact emphasise the authority of Parliament as a whole over broadcasting.
On the question of television programme choice, the committee presents in chapter 12 a number of arguments as to why the needs of the single channel area should be met by a second RTE channel, rather than by the rebroadcasting of British services.
In replying to these points, I would like to separate the question of feasibility from that of desirability.
The question of programme rights is a very difficult one, but the negotiations in respect of the possible rebroadcasting of BBC 1 Northern Ireland have been proceeding satisfactorily though slowly.
We acknowledge not only the rights of foreign copyright holders, but also the rights of Irish performers to have their employment safeguarded. The more serious question in these negotiations is the vital issue of control, the right of a Government to decide the structure for the diffusion of television programmes within its own territory. It is the right of a Government to choose the technical means which are suited to its terrain, to the distribution of its population, and to the national aspirations of its people. It is this control which I am very concerned to keep in the hands of our Government.
The question of the implications which open broadcasting might have for RTE advertising revenue are also raised by the Review Committee.
This is a serious matter which will be taken full account of in the final decision as one of the costs of open broadcasting.
On the question of principle, however, that is, concerning desirability, I must take issue with the report. There is a basic contradiction between the committee's recommendation that cable television services should be allowed full freedom to develop, and bring British programmes to Dublin and perhaps 30 other cities and towns and its rejection of the same programmes when broadcast from transmitters.
If any Deputy from Dublin feels that cable television has transformed his constituency to quote the report "in spirit and reality into a provincial region of Britain", let him speak up now and, if his colleagues agree, I have no doubt that a way can be found to take the appropriate corrective action.
In this respect what the report really says is that, while the capacity to view British television might be increased in certain areas, through the expanding use of cable, the introduction of it into other areas would transform the country as a whole into "a provincial region of Britain". I cannot see on what logical grounds that proposition can be defended.
I sometimes feel that what underlies this rather peculiar attitude is not really so much an objection to our people watching British television as an objection to admitting that they watch it. In that case the element in our national culture which is being preserved is the element of pretence. I believe, on the other hand, that our national culture would be made healthier and more real by the reduction of that element.
As I have said before, I would like to see a television service from Northern Ireland available throughout this island and RTE available throughout Northern Ireland. These remain my objectives. Some progress in the first direction has been made, through the removal of restrictions on cable and I hope to record further progress in my next report to you. As regards availability of RTE in Northern Ireland, I have put certain proposals to the present Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, Mr. Merlyn Rees. I know the House will appreciate however that it has not been possible to press this matter strongly on the attention of the Secretary of State while he grapples with the many grave and urgent problems which have confronted him since he took office. The Review Committee, while considering that the availability of BBC I Northern Ireland and Ulster Television in the south-west of the Republic would transform the country in spirit and reality into a provincial region of Britain, also seems to take it for granted that two RTE television channels should be received in Northern Ireland.
In this I fear the committee unconsciously reflects a habit of mind very general among us: to wit that the aspiration to unity which we cherish is to be achieved on our terms only. Thus the same people who hold the theory that Divis is as Irish as Kippure, think that nonetheless what is broadcast from one mountain should be seen throughout the island and what is broadcast from the other should not. Irishmen of the two traditions have always had difficulty in talking and listening to one another as equals. The idea that one or the other has to be master of a territory and all the people in it has been at the root of most of our troubles. The concept that it is right for the programmes that reflect our tastes to be broadcast to them, but wrong for the programmes that reflect their tastes to be broadcast to us derives from that mentality. The concept of open broadcasting is an effort to break away from this. Like the rest of our efforts to break away from the trammels of past thinking it is beset with many difficulties, but the effort is, nonetheless, worth making.
Before I conclude I would like to take this opportunity of paying a public word of thanks and appreciation to the RTE Authority and the staff of RTE for the broadcasting services they made available during the past year and for the stimulation and enjoyment they provided for viewers and listeners. It is my intention that RTE shall continue to grow and develop, and I believe that the stimulus of increasing competition will in the long run be seen to be of benefit to it.
