One of the greatest scandals in connection with this Estimate is the failure to instal telephones. I have been listening for four years to alibis, founded on the proposition that we are awaiting trunk lines or new exchanges. Sooner or later these alibis will cease to suffice and I think the Minister should be able to give greater reassurance than he or his predecessor has been in a position to give in respect of the absurdity of our failure to provide telephones for all who want them, more especially when we realise that the telephone service is the one section of the postal services which pays its way.
It is a fantastic comparison to see in the United States a private telephone company advertising for users, clamouring for people to multiply the number of telephones in their houses, and to find ourselves after years of planning, still in the position that we cannot, or will not, supply people with telephones, although if we did, it would involve no charge on the Exchequer; on the contrary, it would become an abundant source of revenue.
Secondly, I want to direct the Minister's attention to the fantastic postal arrangements for parcels at present. It is a service I do not often employ but recently I went to post books and for a parcel of books for which I formerly paid 6d., I was asked to pay 2/8. I suggest the rates for parcel post have reached fantastic heights. One becomes accustomed, I suppose, to meeting the charges on ordinary letters but it comes as a shock in the case of parcels. I do not think people realise the burden that is thrown on traders or on the ordinary citizen by the increase in postal charges which seem to me to have reached tremendous heights and with special reference to parcel post, these rates seem to be far in excess of what should be necessary for the economic transport of parcels.
I do not entirely agree with my colleague, Deputy Ryan, about the quality of entertainment provided by Telefís Éireann. I remember trying to ask myself what is the primary function of a television service. That is a question I think Deputies should ask because the Director General of Telefís Éireann has to ask himself that question. I think we are bound to answer it by saying that the primary function is to entertain. If it does not entertain, people simply will not look at it. By and large, comparing the quality of entertainment provided by Telefís Éireann with that provided by ITV and other commercial programmes in Britain, and indeed with commercial programmes in the US, I do not think Telefís Éireann has any reason to hang its head. The plain truth is that the advertisements are a damned nuisance and I think most viewers would look at the BBC in preference either to ITV or Telefís Éireann simply because of the intervention of advertisements, but once we took the decision in the Oireachtas to make the television service dependent in part at least on the revenue from advertisements, we have no reason to complain about the television authority if they carry out their injuction.
There is no doubt that the attraction of Telefís Éireann is very materially abridged by the number and length of the advertisements but I am told that unless that number of advertisements and that amount of time is devoted to them, the revenue we expect the service to earn will not be available. Having made due allowance for that, I do not think it reasonable to say that there is an excess of puerile entertainment on Telefís Éireann as compared with any other station. We must bear in mind that the station must provide what the bulk of the public want.
It might be very edifying if the station produced nothing but Beethoven and Mozart in music and nothing but classics in literature and drama but the bulk of the public might not want to look at that. Mark you, some of us might get a bit bored if we spent all our time listening to Dante's Divine Comedy. I have been trying to wade through that recently and I find it an extremely burdensome undertaking. Certainly I would not do it for entertainment. Doubtless it would be more edifying if more drama were broadcast but there are times in the lives of all of us when one enjoys looking at a western from the cinema. I should like to ask my colleague if it has not occurred to him that one of the reasons Telefís Éireann is constrained to turn to the United States of America for the source of canned material is the language?
I regard myself as being reasonably fluent in French and having a bowing acquaintance with German, but I would not like to be entertained listening to a French or a German play because it would put an undue strain on my linguistic capability. The output of material from American studios is vast and readily accessible. I do not think the output of that material from British cinema studios is of anything like the same volume. I suppose that sometimes it ought be possible to get superior material if a more prudent choice were exercised. I am sure that Telefís Éireann are not in a position to get exactly what they would like to get because in dealing with these distributing companies, I rather imagine that sometimes a body like Telefís Éireann may be constrained to accept what is offered and not allowed to choose all the stuff they want but are constrained if they get some choice item to take something not quite so choice as well. Certainly those engaged in the cinema business find themselves in that dilemma. Perhaps the Minister would tell us some of the problems that Telefís Éireann have to encounter when seeking to get the best they can offer in television programmes.
I want to say something that may cause a scandal but which requires to be said. Television is a medium of terrifying power. I often think that television is a very much more formidable instrument than the atomic bomb. The worst the atomic bomb can do is to destroy your body but television can destroy your mind and your soul as well, particularly in the case of young people, if they are perennially exposed to it. Therefore, a very great sense of responsibility is incumbent on whoever has charge of determining what is to be broadcast. On balance, Telefís Éireann has discharged that responsibility reasonably well and has provided a standard of entertainment which compares favourably with that available from other sources.
I want to put this to the Minister, and it is a matter of the gravest moment for this State and all the people: I am prepared to concede Telefís Éireann a very wide discretion in comment and debate about our proceedings in this House but I feel there is incumbent on Radio Éireann and Telefís Éireann the obligation, particularly during a period when there are no newspapers in circulation, to provide an objective record—and I emphasise "objective"—of what has transpired in this House. I think Radio Éireann make a fair effort to do just that; Telefís Éireann do not. Most of their reports of the proceedings in this House are tendentious in the extreme.
I am perfectly well aware that a good many people are reluctant to comment on this, lest they themselves get the rough end of the stick, but as far as I am concerned I do not give two fiddle-de-dees what Telefís Éireann says or does not say about me, but I certainly care very deeply about what Telefís Éireann says or does not say about Dáil Éireann, because whether we like it or not, the independence and the standards of all our people ultimately depend on what transpires in this House. It is of vital importance, one, that our people should know broadly what is said in this House and, two, that the proceedings of this House should be honestly presented to them, objectively, leaving it to the people themselves to judge. I do not think that is being done.
I do not want to form or make any rash judgements but I want to make this perfectly clear, if that lack of objectivity is not the result of misguided effort but is in fact the result of a carefully conducted campaign by certain Ministers of the Government to control and influence the reporting on Telefís Éireann, it will be dealt with in this House specifically and by name. Now, I do not expect perfection of anyone but I do expect those charged with this immensely grave responsibility to discharge that responsibility honestly and scrupulously, and I do stipulate as a very minimum requisite that there should be an objective report of all that transpires in this House, leaving comment on our proceedings to some other programme.
In so far as Telefís Éireann fail to discharge that duty, the time has come either for them to improve their expertise, if that is what is lacking, or else to banish out of Montrose any ulterior influence that has no proper place there. Now, a nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse. Scandals are not desirable if they can be avoided but the exposure of corruption is a sine qua non of a clean democracy, and as long as this House functions, let the Minister be certain of this, corruption and interference with a medium of public communication will not go unexposed if it is suffered to continue. Lack of expertise is another question, and if that be the reason for the inadequacy of the reporting of the proceedings of this House, then someone should put his hand to its correction as soon as may be. The whole situation is immensely unsatisfactory and the cause of widespread comment.
We are not ordinarily a very charitable people. As Dr. Johnson said, the Irish are an honest people; they tend to speak ill of themselves. A great many of our people felt the absence of objectivity was evidence of improper interference with the discretion of the television authority. I am prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt, that it may be due to lack of expertise. If it is, it can be easily corrected; if it is not, then rather more disedifying suspicion requires it to be examined in greater detail.
I should like to give credit where credit is due and I should like to know from the Minister whether he agrees with me that the burden on Telefís Éireann of carrying so large a volume of advertising is creating an injustice for them which is rather more than they can be reasonably asked to bear? The time has come when we should consider this question very seriously.