(Dublin Central) asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the number of stamps printed abroad to commemorate Saint Oliver Plunkett and Architectural Heritage Year.

6.

(Dublin Central) asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs the cost of printing abroad the issue of stamps to commemorate Saint Oliver Plunkett and Architectural Heritage Year.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.

The stamps issued to mark the canonisation of Saint Oliver Plunkett were in two denominations and a total of 10 million stamps were printed. The stamps issued to mark European Architectural Heritage Year were in four denominations and a total of 20 million stamps were printed.

As I stated in a reply I gave on 6th November, 1975, to a previous question by the Deputy, it was necessary for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners to invite competitive tenders for the printing of these stamps. It is contrary to established practice to disclose the information requested by the Deputy in regard to contract prices.

(Dublin Central): May we take it that this contract was open to tender?

That is so.

(Dublin Central): Was there no firm in Ireland who could have printed these stamps?

There is no printing establishment in this country other than the stamping branch of the Revenue Commissioners which is approved by the Revenue Commissioners for security printing.

(Dublin Central): Will it be the position then that the printing of stamps of this nature will be caried out abroad at all times in the future or is it the intention of the Minister to make facilities available to have the work carried out here?

The question of an expansion of the facilities is one for the Revenue Commissioners and, therefore, for the Minister for Finance but the position is as I have stated: where possible, printing of stamps will be undertaken by the stamping branch but there is no other printing establishment in the country approved for this work.

Regarding price, I should like to add that I am not in a position to disclose contract prices but the price of these stamps is covered many times over by the philatelic sales. These sales mainly are carried out abroad.

Has the Minister carried out any investigation in regard to this contract with a view to ascertaining how many man hours were involved in the printing abroad of those stamps so that we might have some idea of the employment that would have been created at home for our unemployed had the work been carried out here?

This is another rhetorical question.

Is it not true that the most modern printing techniques have been established in the Dublin Stamping Branch, that technicians have been sent abroad to learn the techniques of operating this machinery, and that there is nothing more advanced than it in the world? If this is true, why should the contract go abroad?

The contract went abroad because the Stamping Branch advised that they were not in a position to undertake this work at the time in the context of total demand on their printing facilities. They said there was no alternative, therefore, to the employment of outside printers to produce two of the year's special stamp issues.

I will have to take the Minister's word, but I find it hard to believe.

I hope the Deputy will take my word.