I regret that I was not in for the debate on this Estimate last night. There are just one or two points on which I should like to get some enlightenment from the Minister. I do not know whether the points have already been put to him. I should like, for instance, if the Minister would explain why, in the giving of the news relating to the business of this House when questions put and answered in the House are being dealt with, the name of the Deputy putting a question is always omitted and the name of the Minister answering the question is given. I do not know whether the other matter has already been referred to, but I have no intention of going into it, that is, regarding the very definite bias that is shown in giving political news or news of the business transacted in this House. That has become so notorious that I do not think it matters whether or not we refer to it here.
So far as the service itself is concerned, I think that we ought to have reached the stage in this country when we can have a better and a more continuous service than we are getting. I am not, of course, now referring to the curtailment of the programme which has been brought about by recent conditions, over which I know the Minister any more than anybody else had no control. But ordinarily I think that the people are entitled to get a more continuous service and I am not, I think, overstating it when I say that, even with the service we are getting, the people are not satisfied that the principal items in the ordinary service that we get from Radio Éireann are given at times when the majority of listeners would be free to listen to them.
I am not satisfied that better use could not be made of wireless here so far as the agricultural community are concerned. I think it is a service which could be used to greater advantage during the winter months—in the long winter evenings—to propagate news which would be of interest and of benefit to the farming community. I am not so sure that there are some features that we would not be better off without. Equally, I think there are a number of features which are barred by the Minister from the people and which, I think, the people want and are entitled to get.
I do not know to what extent, if any, the features given over the radio are a reflection of the Minister's own tastes with regard to music and so on. I would not like to decry in any way the value of what people call classical music. I do not know very much about music, but I am told that there is an unreasonable amount of the limited time which is utilised for broadcasting here devoted to features which, as large numbers of people say, are entirely over their heads. I find in rural areas, and perhaps it is natural enough, that the majority of the people want to get native music which, I suppose, they understand better than the other, and I find considerable numbers of farmers and farmers' sons who are anxious to keep abreast of every modern development which would help towards increased agricultural production.
I think it would be helpful and very instructive if we had over the radio from the experts who reside in this country short talks or lectures on modern developments tending towards an intensification in agricultural production. The utilisation to the best possible advantage of the limited fertilisers we have, the intelligent use of lime on certain classes of land, the varieties of cereals and root crops likely to give the best return from soil of a particular type or in different counties or parts of counties—all these things might be broadcast in an interesting fashion and unquestionably the information would be very useful to the agricultural community. I would not like to see what I am now suggesting carried out in the way in which we have been accustomed to get things from the Department of Agriculture. That is, in a general sort of way, as if the land in every county was the same, as if there was no difference whatever in the soils. We all know there is a vast difference, and a particular variety of seed that would be suitable for land in one parish would be quite unsuitable for the land in the next parish; what would be suitable in one field might not be suitable in another.
What I am endeavouring to convey to the Minister is that we should get through our radio a number of features that would be useful to the people generally. I would like the radio to be used for what I think everybody will agree is badly needed in this country, and that is to convey to our people, particularly those who are growing up, some sense of civic responsibility, some sense of respect for public property. We know that irresponsible children and, indeed, persons who are not children but who are still irresponsible, have, not only in the city here, but through various parts of the country, caused great damage to public property of one kind or another. I think responsibility of citizenship in this State is absolutely ignored. It is one of the things that we are lacking in and I think the wireless could be used, at least to some extent, to help in that direction. I think most Deputies will agree with me there.
I do not want to suggest that the wireless station should be used entirely for instructive purposes, if I might put it that way, as people look to it for a certain amount of relaxation but at certain periods of the year, and at certain times of the day, we could have, judiciously blended with the ordinary entertainment programme, some features that would be as I say instructive, useful and beneficial, not only to the individual but to the country as a whole. Our wireless station and its personnel are I think sufficiently long in existence now to be able to give us, having of course all the time regard to the size of the country and to our resources, as good a service as any other national broadcasting system. I do not think, as I say, that we are making the best use or the fullest use of it. I know that the Minister and that particular section of his Department, have, like other Departments, been carrying on under difficulties. I know their difficulties have not lessened since the war ended but at the same time I feel that we are not getting as much from this service as we might get from it. I know there are numerous complaints from people who pay an annual licence fee that they are not getting the worth of their money. That is a view to which I do not subscribe. I think that the annual licence fee is very reasonable and a very moderate one but it does bring in a rather substantial income in the year.
I do not know whether we have yet reached the stage that we are spending on the station even the amount realised from wireless licences. I think that the income from the service is the least that should be spent and, personally, I should be prepared, should it be necessary in order to derive the fullest benefit from the service, to vote any sum additional to that realised from the licence fees.
I do not know whether the position is still that which existed for many years, that artistes and other people whose services are utilised for broadcasting purposes have the complaint that they are very badly underpaid, and whether people are expected to come up from the country to take part in a particular feature, the recompense for that being two or three guineas. If so, I think it should be discontinued. If you want to get good service, whether on the wireless or in any other way, if you want to get the best man or the right man, you will have to pay for it. I think that if the wireless service were utilised to the fullest extent possible it could confer many benefits on the country as a whole.