It is not my intention to blame the Minister for the ills or woes that beset his Department because, to be fair to him, I must say he is probably the decentest man in this House, but the name of being a decent man can be a very bad name to get at times and when one gets the name of being a decent man, one often finds oneself in a lot of trouble which it is difficult to get out of. The Minister has not been very long in charge of this Department and I must say that since he took it over, he has been making a reasonably good job of it, but it is definitely one Department which badly needs a shaking up, and a rapid shaking up.
I have often wondered if the Department of Posts and Telegraphs were an ordinary competitive private enterprise, instead of being State-owned, how long it would remain in existence without running into grave financial difficulties and, in due course, bankruptcy and then extinction.
I find that the best service is given in the small sub-post offices around the country, where people are badly paid for operating the service but who nevertheless operate it very effectively. The main troubles occur in the bigger offices which are controlled by the Department. I would point out to the Minister that any shaking up he will have to do will be in these bigger offices controlled by the Department and not in the small sub-offices where things go reasonably well.
I have often wondered if some of the big offices could be switched to private enterprise would they operate more effectively. I would like the Minister to consider that idea because we get a very good service in the small sub-offices and there is very little trouble in connection with them.
At the moment one of our main troubles is with the telephone system. It is particularly bad at night. If one goes to a kiosk in the city of Dublin at night in order to make a phone call to the west, one finds that the position is chaotic. It is bad enough to find difficulty in putting through a call from the west to Dublin but the position is worse in reverse. It appears to me that Indian smoke signals operated from the west coast would reach Dublin as fast as one can get a call through from Belmullet to Dublin but if the wind happened to be from the east and the smoke signals were initiated in Dublin they would be seen in Belmullet in half the time that it takes to get a telephone call through. The only trouble would be that at night-time the smoke signals would not be visible.
I and other Deputies know that most of the exchanges in Dublin are staffed at night by people who are doing university or other college courses. I want to point out to the Minister that if these people want to hold on to their soft jobs and want to pay their way through college at public expense, they had better do their work properly. If they do not, I, for one, shall very quickly draw attention to their lack of ability. It is most unfair to the public. It is a shocking situation that the tomtoms of Africa or the smoke signals of the Red Indians can compete in performance with our so-called modern communications system. Something must be done about it. It is possible the Minister may not know about it, but I can tell him there are very few Deputies who do not. I agree that when the Minister makes a call, he probably gets priority. So do I, I suppose, but even if I do, I could get in touch with my constituency as quickly if I were capable of operating the Indian smoke signal system as I could by the telephone system we have.
The Minister is responsible for the broadcasting system and for the television system. Whether he likes it or not, he will have to accept responsibility because the House will hold him responsible. These two services are very important and somebody must draw a line at the point at which they are abused or misused. I suggest it is now past time somebody did that. It is bad enough to hear a clown you cannot see raving and ranting and misrepresenting public opinion, misrepresenting what Deputies and Ministers say in this House, but it is even worse when we reach a point at which we can see that clown not only giving it out but clearly acting the goat as well.
I think the Minister must do something about it. I do not for a moment think that Telefís Éireann is honestly representing public opinion in this country. It is shocking that we have now reached a position where a certain clique, a certain minority, control that organisation. I remember the time, when I was much younger than I am now—I am sure many Deputies listening to me also remember it—when there was a tag "no Irish need apply", but I never thought that in a country which for 700 years fought for its freedom, and won it, we should see the day when, outside the door of a national television system, admittedly invisible but, nevertheless, there, a notice saying "No Catholic need apply."
That is the position here. Let me tell the Minister that it applies to more than Telefís Éireann: it applies to other State concerns as well. It happens to be true. I see no reason why the views of a minority should be foisted on us, why we should have to accept them as entertainment. I certainly shall not accept that type of entertainment. It reminds me of the time when a now defunct newspaper in this country printed Pope John's Encyclical Pacem in Terris just for spite on the Catholic papers. I, for one, do not intend to stand idly by and watch that sort of thing silently.
We see across the city and across every town and village in the country a new type of forest growing. It has not been planted by the Forestry Division of the Department of Lands. It is composed of disfiguring aerials over houses, villages, towns and cities. Are we to call a halt or are we to allow this to go on until, as usual, we reach a point where we cannot do anything about it? Could we not devise a system where one aerial in one street would serve all the houses in that street? The present situation is fantastic in what I would call a rural country. Sometimes we can even see two aerials on the one house, giving the impression that the two women inside are not on talking terms. It is not something that I can ask the Minister for Lands about—he did not sow these trees. If they were even camouflaged in some way I should not mind too much. Perhaps the Minister would get the technicians of his Department to do something about it.
Last week we had a fantastic hubbub about the tapping of telephones. As far as I can remember, the Minister for Justice pointed out, and rightly so, that anybody with a reasonably clear conscience had nothing to worry about. I agree with him. All I can say is that if I heard a buzzing on a telephone I doubt if I could say whether or not it was made by an earwig in a junction box. However, I know it was no earwig who eat the corners off this envelope I now hold in my hand and took out the dollar bills it contained. I wish to point out to the Minister that this is but one example of what is going on in the Post Office service, and not in the small sub-offices either.
As I have said, I am sure it was not an earwig who tore the corners off this envelope and took out of it the few dollars sent to a poor Mayo woman so that she might get a birth certificate to send to her sister-in-law in order that the latter might apply for social welfare benefits in the United States. The people in my part of the country have not the slightest interest in telephone tapping, but they have a most keen interest in matters like this. It is time to call a halt to it.
It is well known that people in the United States send here for sweepstake tickets. I do not wish that this should get publicity in the newspapers, but on numerous occasions when people send here for sweep tickets the money does not arrive. I suggest the Minister should intervene urgently in this matter. I happen to be a juror and was empanelled in recent years in a case in which a man was charged with a mass of frauds in connection with Post Office transactions down in County Mayo. I shall leave it at that. I feel sure the Minister will take immediate steps to remedy the situation. It is much more important than wasting public time talking about telephone tapping.
In connection with the proposed increases in postal charges, I said last week during the Budget debate that I had no sympathy for the big businessman who might have to pay a penny extra for his telephone call. I said that since I was born his profits have been progressively increasing. However, I submit it is ludicrous to charge 5/- for a telegram, particularly when it is pointed out that in the past 12 months there has been a falling off of 100,000 in the number sent. We should realise that most of the telegrams sent are by way of messages of condolence to relatives of deceased persons. We have now reached the stage that it would be cheaper to hire a car and visit them. Five shillings are five shillings. There is the story of the man who did not baptise his son until he saw whether he would live or not because it would cost 5/-. I cannot see the Minister making money on this; in fact, I can see him losing money on it. Perhaps it was good business to cut down on telegrams. Was it his intention to ensure that the number of telegrams would drop, or was it his intention to try and improve the financial position of the Telegraph Branch? If one is losing money in ordinary business and adds to the price of the article one is trying to sell, I cannot see how an extra profit is going to be made. I would like to be sure it would not have the opposite effect. I am afraid that on this occasion it will have the opposite effect on the customers.
I want to refer now to what I will call the jungle dwellers of the Post Office staff—the ordinary postman who, winter and summer, in good weather and bad, delivers the post every day. He is in about the same position as he was in 1900, the only difference being that the uniform he now wears is inclined to choke him even more and is even shabbier. Surely the travellers for any company should be a good advertisement for it? Our postmen going around the country today are not a good advertisement for any business. They wear the worst uniforms in Europe; they have the worst working hours and travelling conditions in Europe; and no one can contradict me when I say they are the worst paid. Yet they give service when required and, if there is a complaint about them, I want to assure the Minister that in 999 cases out of 1,000, it is a fake. I would ask the Minister to consider the position of these men, to do something about providing them with a better uniform and about allowing them to use whatever transport they want, and to do something about increasing their pay.
There is grave suspicion about the method used for promotion. The main suspicion is that the Minister does not interfere at all. If he did interfere, it is generally believed, being the type of man he is, that honesty and fair play would result. But he does not interfere and there is no honesty or fair play.
Finally there is the question of the provision of letter boxes. Unless a man is a "big shot" or an official of some Department, there is no question of a letter box being provided. There is the case of families where the husband has had to leave home. The wife has to reply to a letter sending her a few pounds or, unfortunately, has to write a letter asking for a few pounds. That woman may have to travel five or six miles to post that letter. But if she happened to be an official of a Department or associated with a certain clique, a letter box would be provided close at hand. When Deputies and others asked for letter boxes the general good of the local people should also be considered. It should not be a question of the interests of some individual or small clique.
What I have said about the Minister is not intended as any slur on him as an individual. He is probably the most decent Minister in the House. It is difficult to live up to such a reputation. However, the Minister's Department needs a shaking up. In a Department, which is a paying Department, he should not be afraid to have a shake up. Provided the Post Office give the services they require, I do not think the general public will worry about making the extra payments the Minister asks.
