As the Deputies will understand, the system with which we are dealing is one that has been handed over to us, and naturally it will take us a very considerable time to alter that system to suit Irish needs and requirements. We have already set up a few very capable Committees with that object in view. The question has been put by more than one Deputy as to the cause for this heavy loss in the Post Office. Well, I have dealt with the main causes of that loss in my memorandum, which you have received, but there is one cause which I think requires special treatment, and that is the employment of a force of about 5,000 rural postmen, who are engaged in covering very extensive territory, with a very small and poorly paying volume of work. It has been suggested in the course of the discussion that perhaps some change could be brought about in this method of delivery. I know very well that to abolish the rural post would not be a popular step. As a matter of fact I think it would be rather strongly resisted, and perhaps because of the anticipation of that resistance we have examined other means or other substitutes. We have, for instance, come to the conclusion that it may be possible to get rural letters delivered on the main road to people living off these roads, and pretty extensive districts distributed by means of motor bicycles. Now, that is only one of the proposals which we are considering, but to introduce motor cycles at this stage would mean the disemployment of three or four thousand men. I think you will agree that this is not the time to disemploy men. At any time it would not be popular. It will be unfortunate, but if we cannot find any better substitute, I am afraid that eventually we will have to reduce the rural post and introduce the methods I have suggested. Before any such change is brought about the Dáil will have an opportunity of discussing it. Deputy Figgis is under the impression that a reduction of the postal rates would mean an increase of revenue. I felt inclined to take the same view some months ago, but as a result of investigations on the other side, in England, I have discovered that, as a matter of fact, the English anticipations of an increase of revenue, or even a substantial decrease, have not materialised. Their anticipations have worked out in the other direction, and the increase which they did anticipate has not materialised. Well, if it does not materialise in a commercial community like England, I think we would hardly be justified in taking the view that we could follow that line here. We have, on the other hand, reduced the penny letter rate to one halfpenny, because we feel that the former rate weighed very heavily on manufacturers and business people, and I understand that the business community feel that this reduction has somewhat brought about an expansion of their business already. Now, on the question of the 1¼ million loss, it is an item which, I think, this Dáil cannot afford to brush aside lightly. It is a very big item. If a similar item were applied, say, to several other Departments of State, well, the taxpayer would show his teeth rather quickly. For instance, supposing this Government were to try further experiments in commercial control, and that these further experiments resulted as the Post Office has resulted, I wonder what would become of the revenue of the country. How long would the country tolerate it? I do not think for very long. We feel that the country will not continue to tolerate this heavy drain in the running of the Post Office. I personally believe that the country would be well advised not to tolerate it too long, or at any rate that the country would be justified in demanding from those in control of the Post Office an explanation as to the possibility of reducing that deficit with a view ultimately to wiping it away altogether. Now, in view of that feeling, which undoubtedly does exist, we have taken the precaution of setting up a very capable Finance Sub-Committee, and I am sure that within the next six months or so we will have thoroughly probed the whole edifice as handed over to us, and we will be able to give judgment as to how that can be made right. Deputy Figgis commends us for our judgment in not introducing the system of broadcasting. The public have been rather impatient at our apparent slowness in this matter. The Americans rushed in without consideration. They permitted several systems of broadcasting to be introduced, and now we find that each and all of these systems have to be scrapped, and the Government intends, I believe, to take broadcasting under its own direction. We cannot afford to try an experiment of this kind which stronger and longer established countries, and countries in a better position to spend money in experiments, have not taken up. The burning of the old Post Office in 1916, and the burning of O'Connell Street, which was the headquarters of our Executive Department, and the subsequent burning of the Rink, have all combined to make administration in the Post Office very difficult. I expect that those who perpetrated the latter burning had that in view. One will readily understand that after the destruction of these buildings specially devised for the headquarters work of so big a Department, that a good deal of dislocation must necessarily follow, and a good deal of dislocation has followed, and at the moment we are getting it hard from the commercial community, particularly in Dublin, because of our failure to meet their requirements with expedition. Well, the fault is not ours, and I would impress on this Dáil, seeing that the Dáil as a whole will be responsible for the administration of the Post Office in the future, that it should not lose sight of the imperative necessity of immediately getting to work in setting up a proper headquarters for the Post Office administration. As long as the business of this Post Office, which employs in Dublin some 4,000 or 5,000 people, is diverted to back lanes and alleys and stores and railway carriages, you cannot do the public business properly, and the public must suffer and the public are suffering. I intend in the immediate future to make a proposal to the Cabinet which would involve, if accepted, the rebuilding of the old Post Office. I am rather disappointed that Labour agrees that an urgent matter of this kind should be deferred. I do not think that they knew the circumstances when they nodded approval to the President's proposal to-day, but I wish to make it clear that it cannot be deferred and it must be dealt with; otherwise you will find that the commercial community and the working community, too, will suffer very seriously. I may say, in connection with the old Post Office, that a claim for a million pounds has been lodged with the British Government, and though that claim has not or may not be considered by the Shaw Commission, it is not definitely ruled out, and neither should it be. Deputy O'Shannon refers to the transferees from England. As a matter of fact we have brought very few officials from the other side. On the other hand we have sent quite a number across. A great number of Englishmen were employed here, and a good many have gone and a good many more are going, but we have had to accept our quota from the other side to balance that number and we are accepting them, and I may say in every case the men coming to this side are Irishmen, or men of Irish descent, and the most capable men in the Department. At any rate, in a few departments, particularly in the Engineering, materials from the English Service were indispensable. When discussing the transfer of staff from England, of course, the North-east is included, because the North-east is under British administration. Deputy Davin points to the loss on telegrams, and incidentally mentions that that loss is rather due to the preferential treatment of Press telegrams. Well, I should say that it is. Preferential treatment is given to Press telegrams, and this subject was discussed in the English House of Commons a few years ago, and very warmly debated, but possibly because of the influence of the Press the preference continued, and there it is.