There is one matter that I mentioned to the Minister before, and I would like to renew my observations. Certain artistes were invited to come from County Donegal to perform in Dublin for Radio Athlone, and they complained that they were given a sum of only £2 2/- or £3 3/- for the performance which they gave, and that their travelling expenses cost them more than the entire fee which they received for performing, with the result that when another invitation was sent to them, some of them declined to come. I appreciate that it is very difficult for the director of broadcasting to give somebody from Cork who has to travel to Dublin, to make whatever contribution he has to make, a higher fee than he gives to a resident of Dublin for the same kind of performance. But it is obvious to me that if we want to introduce traditional singing, traditional violin-playing and a variety of forms of traditional music, the most expert exponents of which are to be found in the Gaeltacht or in the more remote rural parts of the country, we have to make up our minds to pay for it if we are to have it at all.
I think it is an eminently desirable thing that the traditional music of this country should be incorporated frequently in our musical programmes; but I would like to make this suggestion, that we cannot afford to tolerate the same mediocrity in the presenta tion of traditional music that we might afford in the presentation of popular music. I do not think, if you are dealing with the great classics of music, that you can afford to broadcast from a mediocre performance. When you are broadcasting dance music or light popular music it is not a matter of such great consequence whether the performer is highly expert or not. But when you are broadcasting traditional music, with which a great many people in this country and abroad are not familiar, it should be broadcast as perfectly as it is possible to get it done and, therefore, I would have no hesitation in paying an extra fee in order to make it possible for the exponents of that kind of music to come. I suggest to the Minister that the only way that can be done, if he desires to set a standard of fees for similar performances, is to set a standard in the studio and add to that fee the travelling expenses where a person has to come from outside the area of the City of Dublin.
I assume that the income from listeners to the broadcasting service in this country will tend to grow. Certain foreign broadcasting stations, finding themselves with a surplus income, determined that it would be a very good thing to subsidise themselves, or maintain themselves, a really good orchestra, a philharmonic orchestra. The great difficulty in Dublin of maintaining a philharmonic orchestra is that there are not very many wealthy people knocking about and it is extremely difficult to make it possible for any such orchestra in our native city to develop without cohesion and a continuity of work together, which would give the individual musician a fair opportunity of making an adequate contribution to such an ensemble. I therefore suggest that the Irish broadcasting service should seriously consider the question of subsidising the Dublin Philharmonic Orchestra, even if it were only in the form of paying them a regular annual fee in consideration of a certain number of performances before the microphone. I should be glad if it were done in that way, or else that they should be guaranteed a certain annual endowment so that their services might be available to the broadcasting service when they were wanted, and also so that they might provide a centre of musical entertainment for the people of the country generally as well as for the citizens of Dublin.
My third point is that, while we have very interesting and also exceedingly dull talks on the radio, and while we have had some excellent performances on the wireless and also some execrably bad ones, I think we ought to consider whether or not the time has come to extend our invitations for lectures and individual performances a little further afield. For instance, celebrity concerts are held here in Dublin from time to time, and the artistes who appear there, and who, doubtless, require a very large fee for coming to Dublin for one concert, might be persuaded to perform individually over the radio, on the occasion of their visit for the celebrity concert, on, say, a Sunday, at a fee which the broadcasting service might be able to pay. If that could be done, we might consider, later on, inviting them specially to give one or more broadcasts themselves and that would make available to the rural population of the country the enjoyment which those, who can afford to attend the celebrity concert, can have by visiting Dublin and paying for a ticket. That would not be calculated to interfere with the success of such enterprises as the celebrity concerts, because experience has shown that, if you introduce people to the delights of hearing a really great violinist or a really fine pianist over the radio or on the gramophone, the effect generally is that you induce a larger number of people to come up themselves and hear the performers in person.
I should be glad also if the Minister would consider getting persons of distinction in various branches of science and art to come to the radio and deliver lectures. It is quite possible that that could be arranged more economically by relaying from London than by bringing the lecturer to Dublin, because London is more central. I do not know whether you could relay a lecture from Paris or the Continent generally, but I think one might consider the advisability of having lectures from distinguished persons either by way of relay or by inviting them to the City of Dublin. If we begin by using the method of relaying instead of bringing such people to Dublin, I would urge on the broadcasting service the advisability of helping in the future to bring persons of distinction both in science and art to the City of Dublin, because, while the broadcasting service would contribute the bulk of the expense in such a case, individuals or societies, who could not contemplate the extravagance of inviting these people to come themselves, might avail of their presence in the City of Dublin to meet them and in that way would benefit by their presence here and might be able to procure their services for a smaller fee than that offered by the broadcasting service for a special lecture dealing with a subject with which these distinguished visitors are peculiarly qualified to deal, and in that way we might draw to the City of Dublin a number of persons whom it might be of inestimable value to meet and whom we could not hope to induce to come here under other circumstances. In the same way, we would be able to introduce these distinguished visitors to the people at large through the radio.
That is the last matter I wish to touch upon, but I want to invite the opinion of the Minister and of the House to this aspect of the question. I think it is a good thing to let the views of persons of distinction be ventilated in public. I believe in free speech and therefore I would suggest to the Minister that he should be somewhat radical in the kind of talks which he permits on the radio. It is well known that, if a person of distinction is invited to the microphone, neither the Government nor the Director of Broadcasting, nor anybody else, accepts responsibility for the view which the person of distinction is going to express. Such people are simply brought there so that the public at large may hear all sides of every question. I know that it is an extremely delicate and difficult problem to decide where you are going to draw the line as to what is going to be regarded as propaganda and what is going to be regarded as legitimate discussion; but so long as the ring is fairly held and all sides of every question are given, and so long as ample opportunity of ventilating all sides is given, I believe that that is the most effective way of demonstrating clearly that there is no question of prejudice one way or the other. On mature reflection, I am satisfied that the Department ought to set its face definitely and rigorously against discussion on the radio of domestic politics, except, possibly, at the time of general elections. Now, I am as enthusiastic a politician as there is in this country. Some people will say: "Why should you not discuss politics at all times of the year?" I say that you should not discuss them because the people do not want that kind of thing, and because I believe that it would give rise, at the present time in any case, to endless practical difficulties which, in theory, it would be very hard to define clearly. Accordingly, I would be very slow to ask the Director of Broadcasting to open the door to discussions of purely domestic politics. I do not suggest for a moment, however, that the wider issues of political philosophies should not be expounded by Irishmen and by foreigners by way of debate or by way of the reading of discourses on the radio; and I also think that, at the time of general elections, the principal Parties, as well as a fair representation of independent Deputies, should be given access to the radio, as was done, I think, in the last general election with great success and with immense satisfaction to the vast majority of listeners.
I think it would be discourteous on my part if I were to sit down without paying a tribute to the work that is being done by the Director of Broadcasting at the present time. I think that a very great improvement has taken place. We are under an obligation here, of course, to throw bricks whenever bricks require to be thrown; but I think it is equally desirable to throw bouquets when bouquets should be thrown. I think that the wireless service is improving and I am only hoping that it will improve still more. Personally, I am proud to rank myself amongst those citizens who are continually sending postcards to Broadcasting House in Dublin expressing approval or disapproval, as the case may be, and I think that if other citizens would adopt the same course it would be of considerable help to the Director of Broadcasting in the work he is doing and to the service generally.
