asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he proposes to issue any commemorative stamps this year and if he will make a statement on the matter.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Issue of Commemorative Stamps.
13.
Fifteen commemorative and other special stamps are being issued this year. Three of these have already issued—one to commemorate the centenary of the arrival in Ireland of the De La Salle Order and two in the Europa series.
The other stamps, to be issued later this year, will be on the following subjects: Irish Fauna and Flora, Irish Music and Dance, Centenary of the birth of Seán O'Casey, Contemporary Irish Art and the usual Christmas series.
Do the Government propose to issue a commemorative stamp to mark the demise of the Department of Economic Planning and Development?
I wish Deputies would be more serious.
I am quite serious. It is a serious question. I refuse to accept the Chair's ruling on that. It was a serious question and it was a serious Department when established, I think.
Could the Minister make any comment on the success of the Shaw and Wilde stamps?
In order to make this matter very serious for Members of the Opposition, who do not seem to take it that seriously, our Philatelic Bureau shows a general upward trend in sales. For example, in 1976 foreign sales were £250,000, total sales £376,000. The 1979 foreign sales were £539,000, total sales being £683,000. That shows a substantial increase from the year 1978 even to the following year.
But the price of the stamp has doubled.
That is not so. Even Deputy Deasy would not fall into that trap. It is so long since Deputy Begley used a stamp he does not even know the price——
Order, please.
Did I hear the Minister of State say that he was issuing a stamp to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Seán O'Casey?
Yes.
Is the Minister aware that it is also the centenary year of the birth of W. T. Cosgrave, who was the first President of this State, who was Taoiseach of this country? Does it not strike the Minister that it would be more appropriate, or equally appropriate, to have W. T. Cosgrave commemorated?
Of course it is appropriate. It is the first time that it has come to my notice.
Will the Minister consider it?
Certainly. I cannot consider it this year because the stamp series has been issued.
Why cannot the Minister consider it this year?
The problem is that in order to enable the design of the stamp to be moulded it must be made almost two years in advance.
Might I ask the Minister what notice he had of the Papal visit with a view to issuing a stamp for it? Two years? If so, he was the only person to know that far in advance.
No, but——
The answer is that the Minister had six or seven weeks' notice only and the Minister's contention that he must have two years advance notice is palpably incorrect.
It is not. It may possibly have been a Christmas issue. That is separate—I am only trying to be informative now——
I accept that the Minister would like to helpful but surely it would not take two years to design a stamp that would commemorate the centenary of the birth of W. T. Cosgrave? The other stamps I have seen to commemorate such people have used a simple photograph or image of the person being commemorated with the date of his birth. The Minister must be more convincing to assure the House that it would take two years to achieve that?
We are talking here about a commemorative stamp which, from the philatelic point of view, is very important. It is in respect of that stamp there must be advance thinking and planning.
Would the people who did this advance thinking about the Seán O'Casey commemorative stamp not have the same knowledge or advance thinking for W. T. Cosgrave?
Question No. 14. We cannot have an argument all afternoon about a stamp.
I would urge the Minister, if a stamp can be produced in seven weeks to commemorate the Papal visit, that we should not have to wait until Christmas to have a commemorative stamp prepared.
I want to inform the Deputy that the procedure for Christmas issues is separate. It is not a commemorative stamp in that sense.
But the Papal stamp was not a Christmas stamp, it was issued during the Pope's visit. He did not come here at Christmas.
One can order a stamp to be printed tomorrow. But a commemorative stamp is a separate question.
Why?
A commemorative stamp is what I was asked about. It has to be designed and the design specially moulded. It is a very complex and serious proposition.
If a commemorative stamp could be done for the Papal visit in seven weeks why can it not be done in this case?
I am speaking off the cuff. I do not think the Papal stamp was a commemorative one. I think it was a Christmas issue stamp.
Then what does the word "commemorative" mean?
The Deputy should consult the dictionary. He should not be asking these questions if he——
(Interruptions.)
I said it was very intricate.
If the issue of a stamp was meant to commemorate the birth of other people, whose names I hesitate to use, it would not have been delayed or ignored as is being done in regard to W. T. Cosgrave.
That is an allegation.
It is a very strange situation——
I am calling question No. 14.
——that W. T. Cosgrave is not being commemorated on the centenary of his birth.