Vol. 241 No. 2
I move:
That a sum not exceeding £1,244.00 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1970, for the salaries and expenses of the Stationery Office; for printing and binding, paper, publications, office machinery and other office supplies for Public Services; and for sundry miscellaneous purposes.
I want to raise one point. There are problems at times about publications which go out of print. I know it is difficult for the Stationery Office to judge the demand exactly. Indeed, a couple of years ago there was a big demand for a Seanad debate and, no sooner was the debate printed and available, than the demand dried up.
Had the Deputy spoken in it?
Amongst others. That created the demand. What caused the drying up of the demand I cannot say. There are cases in which publications are likely to remain in continuing demand and it is rather startling to find such publications out of print. A case in point is that of election results. General election results are printed but, when I inquired lately for a copy of the 1948 general election results, I was told they were out of print.
The results of the previous general elections were also out of print. I suggested that these election results were of enduring interest in a country as politically minded as this and it is important that they should remain in print. If they were in print there would be a continuing although, perhaps, sporadic demand for them, perhaps, for years or decades to come, but I did not elicit any competent response. Could the Minister look into this particular question and also into the general question of re-printing publications? Although I cannot put my finger on other publications in regard to which this problem has arisen I have found on other occasions that the same problem exists. I am quite sure that my judgment of a continuing demand might not always be correct but it is important that what should or should not be kept in print should receive further attention.
This procedure in regard to Dáil general election and by-election results should be extended. It is a matter of some concern that it is not possible to get results of either local elections or Seanad elections in similar form. The Seanad election results are available in manuscript form in the Library of this House but the are quite difficult to read because of the binding. They are not otherwise available to anybody and they are of some current topical interest to some hundreds of people in the country. It seems to me that for the permanent record they should be available in print. The same is true of local election results in respect of which it is almost impossible to get details of all the counts without a search. They should be available to us. The whole question of reprinting publications should be considered further and some procedure should be introduced to ensure that publications which are out of date should be kept under review and a reasonably generous policy should be pursued in relation to publications which could be of continuing public interest.
I would have thought that the results of the general election in publication form would have been rather depressing for Deputy FitzGerald.
I am not easily depressed.
The booklet produced about the late President John F. Kennedy's visit to the Dáil is completely out of print. It is an excellent booklet to give to visitors to this House, especially those from America, and perhaps the Minister might have something done about having it reprinted.
I agree that it is important that these should be available even though the demand may be sporadic.
In regard to publications which are still in print they should be more available. My recollection, when I inquired about this some years ago, was that if I went down and browsed through some dusty shelves in Beggar's Bush I would find what was available there. I intend doing this when I have the time. There could be an easier way of finding out what is in print. A list should be available.
