asked the Minister for Education if he will state in respect of the last ten years in regard to Irish books printed by An Gúm (a) the number printed, (b) their cost, (c) the number sold, (d) the amount received in respect of sales, (e) the number disposed of as waste paper or otherwise and (f) the amount obtained in respect of such disposal.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Irish Books Published by An Gúm.
Within the 10 years period 1947-48 to 1956-57 (a) the number of Irish books including music published by An Gúm was 355. The total number of copies of these books printed was 453,278. (b) The figure of actual cost of publication including printing, paper, authors' fees, etc., of these 355 books cannot be readily segregated but the total expenditure in the ten year period on Gúm publications, including some arrears in respect of books published before that period, was £142,388. (c) Of the 355 books published in the ten years 1947-57 the number of copies sold in that period was 122,874. Of the total number of copies of Irish books published by An Gúm since the beginning, that is since 1927, there were sold in those ten years 452,593. (d) The figure of receipts from the sales of the 355 books is similarly not readily available but the total amount received in the ten years in respect of the sales of all books published by An Gúm was £35,867.
(e) None of the 355 books printed between 1947-48 and 1956-57 was sold as waste paper.
Is it not a fact that the question does not alone ask the details in connection with the 300 odd books which the Minister mentioned? Is it not a fact that during the period 1955-58 a large number of books printed by An Gúm between 1927 and 1955 were sold as waste paper? Would the Minister not give the information to the House now as to the amount received from the sales of those books as waste paper?
I would remind the Deputy that his question specifically asks "in respect of the last ten years in regard to Irish books printed by An Gúm" and he has got an answer fully in conformity with the terms of his question. In respect of the 96,000 odd books which were stated in the newspapers recently to be sold as waste paper, the vast majority of these were published in the early years of An Gúm, particularly during the first ten years from 1927. No books, published since 1942, have been sold as waste paper. The total amount received in respect of the sale of these books was, I think, something around £180. That was stated in a reply given by the accounting officer to the Committee of Public Accounts. I should like to say, too, in respect of the 96,000 books that were sold as waste paper, that 43,000 of them were cheap pamphlet-form serials for children costing, on the market, 2d. to 3d. each. The bulk of the balance consisted of translations printed in the early years of An Gúm, printed far in excess of the possible market and apparently without any realistic survey of the possible market.
Why was it decided to sell these books—even the paperback books suitable for children—for waste paper purposes rather than to make them available to libraries throughout the Gaeltacht at no charge at all?
They were sold, as the Deputy is aware, in 1955. I have no responsibility for the decision to sell them. It might be said, in fairness, that the Department, in conjunction with the Stationery Office, took steps to dispose of some of the stocks of books they had on hands by distributing them free, I think, amongst Gaeltacht schools and offering them at very reduced prices to public libraries, secondary schools, vocational schools and national schools. Generally speaking, an effort was made to dispose of them at reduced rates for cash.
The Minister states that an attempt was made to dispose of them at reduced rates. Would it not be more desirable to dispose of them in the form of gifts to rural libraries than sell them as waste paper?
Gifts were made of some of them—I cannot say how many.
Question No. 17.