Nuair cuireadh an Meastacháin seo ar athló, bhí mé ag cainnt faoi Telefís Éireann. In that respect, I wish to congratulate the Minister for having introduced regulations which, I think, will be very effective in having any new interference with the reception of Telefís Éireann programmes eliminated, if at all possible.
Some reference was made to areas where it was not possible to obtain a clear picture from Telefís Éireann. I was wondering if the Minister had examined the possibility of having a booster station erected on Cuilcagh Mountain which is in my constituency and is more or less in the central position in the north-west. Such a station might serve the north-western area comprising Sligo and Monaghan. So far as Cavan is concerned, we are fairly satisfied that we have excellent reception there.
On the last occasion, I referred to Telefís Éireann programmes. While anything that might be said here with regard to programmes may not be matters directly for the Minister, I am sure he will have our recommendations conveyed to the Authority.
The Authority would be well advised to televise programmes featuring the ordinary lives of the people and the sporting activities in which the ordinary people take part. In many districts there are excellent facilities for hunting. There are the mummers who go around at Christmas time. There are weddings, feiseanna, and fleadha ceoil. All these reflect life in rural Ireland. Very often too much emphasis is laid on sporting events which cater for a small minority, such as golf and tennis. In the agricultural sphere a great deal could be done to help people to acquire more intimate knowledge as to the production and marketing of commodities at all stages until they arrive on the table or are exported. There are many excellent creameries and factories producing excellent goods but, unfortunately, quite a large number of people are unaware of the techniques involved and the skill with which the Irish worker can produce these commodities which are able to compete for foreign markets. Telefís Éireann could be used as a boost to our morale by showing the ability of the Irish people to manufacture and produce well designed and well finished articles.
More attention could be paid to local drama festivals. The National Museum is a fund of information to which Telefís Éireann could direct its attention. The Authority could use the material accumulated there in order to bring into the ordinary homes of Ireland a knowledge of the history of our country as contained in relics that have survived in some cases for thousands of years.
So far as Radio Éireann is concerned, there may be a few areas in which reception is not as good as would be desired. It would be wrong at this stage to cater exclusively for television and to neglect the pockets of the country to which the E.S.B. has not found its way and where people enjoy good radio programmes. Where there are complaints of bad reception an effort should be made to improve the position.
In regard to radio programmes in the Irish language, Nuacht an Lae and so on, the time has arrived when Radio Éireann announcers should have a standard type of Irish rather than have three or four announcers vying with one another to get their brand of Irish over to the listeners. In every progressive country a standard language is used in broadcasting. I am quite sure most of our people could understand standard Irish despite the fact that the announcer may not use an Ulster, Munster or Connaught dialect. We have standardised spelling and there is no reason why we should not have a standard in regard to announcing, especially in view of the fact that there are so many people who do not know Irish well. It is no help to have on successive nights announcers with different dialects and different pronunciations. Attention should be paid to that matter, which may be one for Radio Éireann themselves.
When speaking of Radio Éireann I wish to issue a little word of thanks to them, in particular for the manner in which they handled the programmes from the Congo. Radio Éireann staff went to the Congo and were good enough to see to it that the relatives and friends at home of our soldiers in the Congo got a close-up picture of what was happening there. This was a very important step for which Radio Éireann deserve the thanks of the nation. As we now know, many agencies and countries tried to distort the facts and the news and attempted to blackmail the Irish soldier abroad. It was a good thing that there were Radio Éireann reporters on the spot to bring to us a close-up picture of actual events.
The Post Office is probably the only branch of a Government Department that extends into every parish. Post offices are show pieces of the nation. The Minister should do everything possible to ensure that they will be properly painted and that the name of the post office will be displayed in Irish and, if he so wishes, in smaller letters in English. Even if it were necessary to provide extra money to maintain post offices in a good state of preservation it would be money well spent because practically everybody who comes to this country from abroad visits a post office and very often judges the status of the country on its efficiency and brings home a vivid picture of the country.
The fact that post offices have been handling so much money in recent years, notably in respect of prize bonds and savings certificates, is a wonderful tribute to the integrity of the staff in them. In many areas the staff do not get the respect often shown to bank officials. They deserve a word of praise for the manner in which they have handled this very important business of prize bonds and savings certificates. Excellent work is being done in connection with the Post Office Savings Bank. It should be brought to the notice of the people that the Post Office Savings Bank or a thrift account is a very convenient form of investment, which could be usefully employed to help the nation, that it is quite a simple matter to withdraw the money when required, and that the interest rate is much better than that paid by the commercial banks. The people should be encouraged to avail of the banking facilities provided for them every day of the week in the post offices in their own parishes.
The Minister has a great problem on his hands in view of the fact that, somewhat suddenly, there has come about a rather phenomenal outcry for extra telephones. That has arisen particularly because the farming community are very anxious to have telephones if not in their dwellings then at least in kiosks adjacent to rural post offices. They require a night service and the same facilities, so to speak, as are available in many of the built-up areas. If at all possible, the Minister should concentrate on and lean more towards the rural areas in this respect.
Very often, people have to travel long distances to get to a local post office and then sometimes they find there is not a night service. On occasions, the sub-postmasters and sub-postmistresses have been very obliging in facilitating the local people. However, some little extra effort should be made and the facility should be there more as a right than as an obligement. The people would appreciate it.
There is a demand in my constituency for a few extra letter boxes. These are only the smaller points but they need to be mentioned. Every new issues of stamps is very interesting. It is an opportunity to the nation to advertise itself not alone here but abroad. Stamp collectors from all over the world come here to pick up our new issues. Every letter which leaves this country with the Irish language imprinted upon it is an ambassador for us in one way or another. The design on our stamps is important. We have an almost inexhaustible fund of historic persons, historic events and historical places on which to draw when centenaries, and so on, arise and there are many other aspects of Irish life that could be referred to in that respect.
All of us are very familiar with the excellent work done by the post office staff during the Christmas rush. We must be proud of the fact that hundreds of thousands of letters, packages and parcels are handled in this country during that week or fortnight and that deliveries are so prompt and so exact, despite the fact that there may be inadequate addresses, and so on, on some of the material.
There is hardly a Deputy who has not had experience of the trojan work the post offices do so far as elections are concerned, both local government and Dáil elections. The amount of work piled on to the post offices at times like that is tremendous. I can safely say, in respect of my constituency, and I think it is practically the same all over, that the efficiency with which that work is handled is a credit to the staffs of the post offices, to the postmasters, to the postmistresses, to the postmen, to the sorters and to all those responsible: each and every one of these pieces of literature was delivered all over the constituency.
The Minister made reference to some new ideas which his Department was bringing to bear not only on the post offices here but on post offices all over the world. It is gratifying that a small country can put forward ideas and have them accepted. In the matter of providing overhead and underground cables, I am sure that all that work is directed towards improving our telephone service. I wish to mention a point affecting my constituency, namely, cross-Border telephone communications.
It has been brought to my notice on many occasions that cattle lorries, now travelling very often from the West and South for long distances, have to wait for hours at frontier posts before they can contact anyone on the other side and be allowed to go through and have their loads dispersed, and so on. That is something that might call for negotiations on both sides of the Border. It would speed up very much the congestion which usually arises when cattle markets are due in the North.
I was intrigued to hear somebody on the other side of the House complain about the amount of time given to Fianna Fáil Deputies and, in particular, to the Taoiseach when appearing on Telefís Éireann. I shall not go into all that. Somebody painted the picture that when the Taoiseach was appearing elaborate cameras, and so on were in use.
The Taoiseach represents 70 members in this House. One would think it would be time enough to launch criticism in that respect after we had 12 months' experience of the operation of Telefís Éireann. I have not kept a check of these appearances, and so on, but I think that, as head of the Government, the Taoiseach is entitled to appear on these programmes. I am quite sure that, in any pronouncements he makes, he is always taken as speaking more or less as Taoiseach. If the reporters on Telefís Éireann or on Radio Éireann are giving him extra attention, that is a matter for themselves. After all, he is the Taoiseach of this country.
If another person aspires to that dignified position—I do not think it would ever come to pass for some of them—and it should come about then, naturally, as Taoiseach of this country, nobody will have any complaint if he gets extra publicity. Those who viewed the opening of Telefís Éireann cannot accuse the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs of seeking publicity on that important occasion in the history of our country: he was the most modest man who ever appeared on it. I often wonder what some of these severe critics of appearances by the Taoiseach would do if they were in the position in which our Minister for Posts and Telegraphs found himself on that occasion. I fear there would be much to say so far as giving extra time to their appearances on Telefís Éireann and Radio Éireann is concerned.
I congratulate the Minister on the work of his Department. So far as I know, he is in control—indirectly, in some cases—of one of our most important services. Telefís Éireann and Radio Éireann are the showpieces of the nation. Between them, they can wield much power for good or evil. It is important to ensure that both Telefís Éireann and Radio Éireann will maintain the high standards set for them already and will at all times remember that they must present the life of our nation in a favourable manner.
I congratulate the Minister on his efforts. I urge him to bear in mind the points I have raised. I notice that all over the country footpaths are being torn up and underground cables laid and, in addition, that overhead cables are being erected. It is a sign that he and his Department are making every possible effort to cope with the very heavy and unexpected burden placed upon them recently. Everything possible is done by the Department and the Minister. We shall give him every possible assistance to enable him to carry out his duties as efficiently and as effectively as in the past.