First of all, I want to thank you for permitting me to raise this matter on the adjournment because it is a matter of some importance and carries not merely implications for education but also economic and social implications. The format of Question No. 10 on the Order Paper of Tuesday, 18th November, is:
To ask the Minister for Education if he will make a statement on the Government's policy concerning (a) the publication of textbooks in Irish (b) the publication of library books and general information books for schools in Irish and (c) the commitments of previous Governments on an Irish encyclopaedia.
On the textbook question, there are various private companies publishing textbooks in Irish and there is An Gum which is the Government agency for publications in Irish. There is a serious problem with regard to the private companies because of the Minister's failure to raise the grants to the private companies to keep in touch with the increase in the cost of living, to counteract the effects of inflation. This inflation affects the publishers, who have to pay higher wages in accordance with the various national wage agreements, and a very important factor in this industry of publishing is the cost of paper which in one year alone increased by 102 per cent. We must remember that the market for books in Irish is a small one and taking this into consideration and the high inflation rate of recent years, it is essential for the Minister and his Department to realise that the private companies will no longer be able to publish if realistic grants are not available to them.
The quality of books is an important matter in this regard. There is a company—in fact there is more than one company—engaged in this work and producing work of a very high standard indeed. The old black and white textbook is no longer foisted on all our children. We have a company providing two, three and four different colour books. In many instances these books are very attractive indeed and cry out by their very attractiveness and by the efficiency with which they are put together for realistic assistance from the Department of Education, and nobody can say that at the moment the financial assistance is realistic. There should be a review at least once a year, in the economic circumstances prevailing, so that the aid will be an encouragement to the companies to keep publishing Irish books.
Irish artists are employed also in the decoration of books, and again there are artistic, social and economic considerations as well as educational ones in this. You may remember the Scandinavian Report—in fact I see it is referred to by Ciaran Kennedy, the director of the ESRI, in an article in the Central Bank Report for this quarter—by the Scandinavian Art and Design Inquiry team we had here a long number of years ago, who recommended that the designs that are best in Irish designing are native designs. If we have had any strength in the arts in the past—and we were weak in many aspects of the arts—we did have strength in book illustration, and the Minister's realistic paying of grants will help to develop a strong book illustration team in this country.
As well as the textbooks, library books in Irish are very important, ones giving general information, books on the environment and so on. I understand that many thousands of pounds worth of books in this category were imported for use in our Irish primary schools following the establishment of the new curriculum for these schools. If the Minister does not want whatever is being done in this area to die he should go to these people, not wait to be asked, even despite the straitened economic circumstances which he urges so often as a reason for not spending money, and say: "This is something I want to encourage. I am prepared to review grants. I am prepared to help, but above all I am prepared to allow you to plan ahead"—because you cannot just switch on and switch off this industry as the Minister wishes or wills. It is important to realise that if work is suspended now—and work will be suspended if realistic grants are not paid—it will have an effect in 25 years' time rather than next year, so there is no excuse for breaking the sequence.
I had a letter from the Minister in August outlining the grants for 1975, among them £20,000 for Irish reading material. These grants, which were additional to the library grants the payment of which was suspended this year, are for the purchase of additional readers in Irish and of library books in Irish. Even that small amount is £9,000 less than was given for nine months last year: £20,000 for 12 months this year, £20,000 for nine months last year. The general library grant of £165,500 was dropped. All this carries very serious implications for the publishing of Irish books. The book I have here is of the kind I am referring to.
The third point is the commitment of the previous Government in relation to an encyclopaedia. This was to be a 16-volume work with about 150 pages in each volume. The previous Government gave a general sanction for the work. Again, this involved a very high standard of illustration and of encyclopaedic articles of interest that were short and to the point. The art work was superb. There was no dullness about it. Indeed, the Minister and his administration have said that one of the chief aims with regard to the Irish language would be to make it attractive. If the Minister wishes to avoid the charge of being a hypocrite he must realise that this is the kind of work he should be helping in order to promote the Irish language.
I am not holding a brief for any company but I am talking about companies in general who are engaged in this work when I say that they may not be engaged in it for very long if they are left in the lurch by the Minister. I understand that the company concerned had already spent £83,000 on this work, employing editors and artists and developing a team and writers. Everything was going well until January, 1975 when the Department shouted "stop".
I ask the Minister seriously to consider his moral obligation in this regard, a moral obligation flowing from a general consent by the last Government to this work and to the subsidisation of it. I ask him also to consider his obligation to the Irish language— a serious obligation—and not to fail in this by discouraging this work. I think the Minister will agree that the work is well worthwhile. There is nothing cheap or shoddy about it so I ask him to deliver the goods in regard to it. It is the kind of work that would promote the reading and the use of the Irish language.
There is much complaining about the cost of books. If the Minister subsidises, a certain pressure in this regard will be removed but that is not the angle I am going on. If he does not subsidise I am afraid that publication will cease altogether and that would be a very serious consequence. There is no reason why there should not be a free scheme for the medium and that the books be purchased for the people who need them. As a nation we behave in a niggardly way regarding the purchase of books. We do not spend enough on reading matter. While we spend £200 million per year on drink we spend only about £3 million on books and that includes all text books.
In addition to text books there are being used extensively in our schools monthly magazines, four or five of which are in Irish and three of which are in a mixture of Irish and English. These are attractively produced. The subject matter is attractive, too but the Minister must make a realistic assessment of what it costs to produce these books and he must decide if they are worthwhile, if they are doing a good job in the schools. He is aware of the pressure on the schools from the various publishing companies which have huge markets and which, consequently, are in a position to produce books and to spend heavily on their production. Editors and translators must be employed and sustained for all these ventures. If a team is built up but must then be disbanded, it would be impossible to reorganise it. There is no point in saying that in times of an economic recession, this is the first area which must get the knock.
If we subsidise these works we are investing for the future. There is no excuse for anybody saying that we must give the money first to social welfare. I maintain that the highest investment in social welfare is investment in education because this helps social mobility. The highest form of that investment should be in what is our own language which we consider to be i mbaol i láthair na huaire.
Luaigh mé An Gum nuair a thosnaigh mé, agus tá sraith ceisteanna anseo agam don Aire mar gheall ar an moill agus mar gheall ar an laghdú. Dúirt an tAire i Mí na Samhna, 1973, go raibh sé chun 25 duine a chur suas chun téacsleabhair a chur ar fáil. An chéad cheist, an mó duine atá fostaithe aige cheana féin agus céard iad na cáilíochtaí a bhí ag teastáil ó na daoine seo? Ar ghlac aon duine le post agus ar éirigh sé as ó shin? Cén fáth gur éirigh sé as? An raibh eagarthóirí i measc na ndaoine a d'fhostaigh an tAire? Cén tuarastal a bhí fógraithe aige nuair a bhí sé ag lorg na ndaoine sin? Cén tuarastal atá acu i láthair na huaire, na daoine atá aige? An bhfuil sé sáthach árd chun na daoine cearta, na daoine leis na cáilíochtaí a bhailiú chuig an obair seo? An bhfuil an tuarastal seo ceangailte le tuarastal gráid ar bith san Státseirbhís? Má tá, an bhfuil sé sin ag cur isteach ar an obair, ar an iarracht atá an tAire agus an Roinn ag déanamh chun na daoine seo a fháil?
