As will be seen from my statement last year, reductions in the Stationery Office Estimate have been made from year to year for several years past. The figures for the three completed years prior to 1929-30, which I am giving, show to what extent the reductions have been found practicable:
|
Year.
|
Net Estimate.
|
Decrease on previous Year.
|
|
1926-7
|
£155,325
|
£15,060
|
|
1927-28
|
137.289
|
18.036
|
|
1928-29
|
123,999
|
13,290
|
|
1929-30
|
115,995
|
8,004
|
Apart from the reductions, which have been effected this year certain sub-heads show increases, and some explanation of these increases is deemed to be necessary. Sub-head A —Salaries and Wages—increase, £343. A warehouse establishment was fixed late in the year 1927-28, and the annual advances to the wages of this staff, added to increments of salary, account for the bulk of the extra charge. No additions, other than one copying typist, have been made to the staff. Sub-head G—"Iris Oifigiúil"—increase, £500. I have referred on a previous occasion to the fact that the additional notices inserted by the Land Commission in this journal, and the amplification of other notices from the same Department arising out of the Land Act, 1927, have added to the cost of printing. The full effect of these changes is now being felt, and it has become necessary to make increased provision.
Sub-head H—increase of £13,000. The expenditure here embraces the whole of the printing work on voters lists (register of electors, electors lists, claims, objections, etc., etc.). The printing contracts for the lists in urban and county areas are normally placed for five years (the contracts which have recently expired for the urban areas printing actually ran for six years). All these contracts have now expired and new contracts to commence with the register printed in June next have been made. These "time" printing contracts have this advantage, that though the expenditure involved in setting up the type for the first year is heavy, and accounts in this case for the big increase in the Estimate, there are very favourable rates for reprinting in the four years following, as the type once set up is held at the Department's disposal for the full five years. The service for which expenditure under sub-head H is provided is only partly a State charge, as the registers of electors are not alone a record of voters at Dáil elections, but also show the Local Government electors and jurors. The State is relieved of the bulk (4-7ths.) of the charge, which proportion comes to the relief of the Vote as appropriations-in-aid.
Sub-head H H—increase £900— This is a new sub-head, the amount inserted being held to be necessary if certain newspapers and periodicals printed in Irish, which are now in danger of failing, are to be enabled to continue the useful work on which they are engaged. It is proposed to allocate the grants in proportion to the volume of printing work appearing in each Journal, other considerations being equal, where it is clearly established that a grant is necessary.
It will be noted that considerable reductions have been made in certain sub-heads, and it is hoped that it will be found that the reduced provisions made for the present years, which keep closely to the expenditure in the last completed year, modified where necessary by Departmental Estimates submitted, will prove justified. The reduction of £2,000 made in sub-head F (Oireachtas Debates) calls for mention, however, as it is largely due to the decision of the Oireachtas to forego in future the reprinted volumes of debates which in the past formed a not inconsiderable proportion of the total cost of this printing. The automatic issue of a revised and bound edition of the debates in volume form will, therefore, disappear, the weekly debates being bound up in volumes of appropriate size as occasion demands.
The anticipated appropriations-in-aid, it will be observed, show a marked increase, the bulk of which represents the added monies which it is expected will be brought to account from local authorities (supplies to local authorities for registration purposes, increase, £8,150). representing the added charges these authorities will bear as a result of the increase in printing under sub-head H of the Vote. The increase expected under the head of supplies to Repaying Departments is due to the fact that the more important repaying services, such as the Electricity Board, Agricultural Credit Corporation, Currency Commission, etc., and the Repayment Services to Education by way of paper for printing Secondary School Texts in Irish and General Readers in Irish, and supplies to Preparatory Colleges will have reached their full normal requirements in the present year.
The commission (£2,000) is not alone the commission on supplies from Stationery Office stock referred to in the preceding paragraph but also includes that received in respect of the much larger items of Printing and Binding and special purchases, &c., for all Repayment Services, payment for which is charged to "suspense" and therefore does not appear in Stationery Office Vote. (This commission is a not altogether negligible relief to Stationery Office Staff charges.) It will also be seen that a reduction in the Sale of Stationery Office Publications (£600) and in the premiums (£50) received from the agents for the sale of Government publications is anticipated. The premium varies with the sales and there has been a decline in sales for some little time. This decline is partly due to a reduction in the number of Acts and the Regulations which follow from them, and also to a certain shrinkage in the number of reports of Commissions and other documents the sales of which in the years 1927/28 and previous years accounted for much of this revenue. On the other hand there is a corresponding saving in the sub-head I (Printing).
Apart from the reduction which may be expected in the next few years under the printing arrangements for the registers of electors (sub-head H) it is not improbable that Stationery Office expenditure has now reached a point below which, it is believed, it would be found difficult to maintain the existing service. The activities of the public service are clearly on the increase; this is evident from the volume of new work which continues to flow to this Office. The heavy legislation of the past few years has accounted for much of this increase. The Live Stock Breeding Act, Dairy Produce Acts, Courts of Justice Acts, Land Acts, Housing Acts, Industrial and Commercial Property Act, and Local Government Acts, are a few examples of legislation which have considerably affected Stationery Office expenditure. As a set-off to the expenditure thus arising, there have been many savings by standardisation both of forms and records in general use throughout the service and of Stationery Office stocks of paper and supplies, and by the extension of the field of purchase from which better prices are secured. Many economies continue to be secured in existing services with the co-operation of Departments.
