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Volume 8 1945~1948

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No. 117 NAI DFA Secretary's Files P107

Memorandum by Brian Gallagher on Headquarters Staff Re-organisation

Dublin, 7 May 1946

  1. The outbreak of the war in 1939 resulted in an immediate increase in the activities of this Department attributable mainly to -
    • political questions connected with Irish neutrality;
    • travel restrictions between Ireland and other countries, mainly Great Britain;
    • restrictions on trade between Ireland and other countries, mainly Great Britain and America.
    In addition, the opening of the High Commissioner's Office in Ottawa coincided with the outbreak of war. The Office of the Representative to the League of Nations was in 1941 transformed to a Legation to Switzerland, and a Legation was opened in Portugal in 1942.
  2. Now that the war is over there is no sign of any decline in the volume of work arising at headquarters. In addition to this prospect, we are, at the moment, in the process of opening two new Offices abroad, viz., in Stockholm and in Canberra both of which will, it is anticipated, be busy offices, the former from the trade point of view and the latter from the Consular.
    • The political importance and prestige of this country has greatly increased on account of the stand taken during the war and on account of its increasing importance as a hub of International air transport.
    • While it may be anticipated that the travel permit system for travel between Ireland and Great Britain will come to an end in two or three years time, there is a great increase compared with pre-war days in the number of people passing through Ireland by air, simultaneously with an increase in the number of people desiring to come to Ireland on a visit or to reside here. The American Offices all report a great increase in the number of visa applications over those received in 1939.
    • International trade is still governed by all sorts of restrictions and there is no sign of any likelihood that the duties of this Department in connection with foreign trade will decline.
  3. The readiest method of gauging the increase in the volume of work arising at the headquarters office of the Department is to compare the number of communications registered by the Central Registry in recent months with the number registered in earlier years. Unfortunately the method of working in the central Registry does not permit of a count being taken in respect of any year prior to 1944. A new system was introduced on the 1st January, 1944, under which all communications were registered in one 'letters inward' register. At that time officers who had experience of the Registry in 1939 and earlier estimated that the volume of correspondence received had been approximately doubled. The following figures show the total 'letters inward' plus telegrams (separate subjects) registered in the central Registry for each quarter of the years 1944, 1945 and 1946 to date:-
    1944 1945 1946
    March Quarter 8,350 7,760 9,435
    June Quarter 7,455 8,068
    September Quarter 7,243 8,910
    December Quarter 7,198 9,057
    The figure for April, 1946, is 3,189. The attached graph shows the changes from month to month during this period.1
  4. The first Section of the Department to be affected by these figures is, of course, the Registry itself. In 1939 the Registry consisted of five officers (1 MSO, 3 COs, 1 WA). It now consists of eight officers (1 MSO, 2 COs, 4 WA, 1 PKM).2 Included amongst the duties of the Registry staff are the coding and decoding of telegrams. Since the end of the war this work has declined to comparatively small proportions with the result that the full time of one officer previously engaged on coding is now available for general registry work. The present staff is still, however, not fully adequate to carry the present volume of work and it is necessary for the Minor Staff Officer to perform personally duties of Clerical Officer and even lower grading to the prejudice of his proper function of supervision and control. He also does about one hour's overtime nearly every evening. Even on this basis the Registry staff is unable to provide for sick or other absences without going into arrears. I consider that the staff of the Registry requires to be strengthened by another Writing Assistant (or Temporary Clerical Assistant, an experienced member of this grade being at present in the Passport Office).
  5. After the Registry the next Sections of headquarters office to be affected by the increase in correspondence received are (a) the Secretariat and (b) the Accounts Branch.
    • At the outbreak of war the authorised establishment of the Secretariat provided for one post of Counsellor and two of First Secretary. In the Secretariat there are at present three First Secretaries reporting to one Counsellor; of the three First Secretaries one, Mr. Warnock, has a section consisting of one Third Secretary and one Clerical Officer, while each of the other two (Messrs. Fay and Horan - the latter a Second Secretary blocking a First Secretary post) has a section consisting of two Third Secretaries and one Writing Assistant. The pressure of work on these officers is very heavy. The Counsellor has been in the habit of working regularly from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The First Secretaries are also obliged to work considerable amounts of overtime. The Third Secretaries are hard-pressed and considerable arrears can only be avoided by continual late working. A statement showing the amount of overtime worked by the Third Secretaries since the 1st January last is attached.3 It is the considered view of the responsible officers that their sections cannot discharge the volume of work they are at present handling with either efficiency or celerity. The present system does not permit of the First Secretaries giving adequate, or indeed any, time to the proper guiding and training of newly recruited Third Secretaries and the latter in turn are unable to spare time to familiarize themselves with the background of the questions they are handling or with the general policies of the Department. They can see little prospect of any relief in the future.
    • The Accounts Branch consisted before the war of 5½ officers (one AP, one HEO, one SO, 1 CO, 1 CO (parttime) and 1 WA). It now consists of nine officers (one First Secretary, one HEO, one SO, one JEO, 3 COs, and 2 WAs). Even with this increase of staff the Accounts work is in serious arrears and it has not been found possible to bring it up to date. Of the foreign accounts, the three largest and most complicated are those from the USA, London and Paris. The USA accounts have been checked only to August, 1945, the London accounts to September, 1945 and the Paris accounts have been examined to December, 1945, but are not complete even to that date. The establishment of two new Offices, in Stockholm and Canberra, is bound to exacerbate the position. On the other side of the Account Branch work the checking of the USA bank accounts, stamp account, the conversion into sterling of receipts and payments abroad and the preparation of the monthly account of the Vote for the Comptroller and Auditor General has been brought down approximately to August, 1945. The establishment of the two new offices abroad will add to the volume of work on this side also. The Establishment work of its nature cannot be allowed to fall into serious arrears. The Higher Executive Officer, owing to the pressure on the existing staff, is obliged to perform duties of Clerical Officer and even lower grading and is unable to spare time for the supervisory functions proper to his grade. One of the Clerical Officers is engaged full time on minor Establishment duties connected with leave records, stationery supplies, maintenance of building, fuel, light, Civil Service census, etc., and for this reason has not, for some considerable time past, been able to assist with the Accounts work proper. The bulk of the Establishment work is performed personally by the Superintending Officer including some work below his grade, which, in the existing state of affairs, he is unable to devolve to Higher Executive Officer. It is considered that the appointment of an additional Clerical Officer is essential.
  6. The place in which the increase in the volume of work in the Department finally reflects itself is the Typing Room. Before the war the staff here consisted of six officers (five Shorthand Typists and one Typist). It now comprises twelve (1 Supervisor, 8 Shorthand Typists and 3 Typists). All Sections of the Secretariat and the Accounts Branch have for a considerable time past experienced delays and faulty typing (due to lack of time for checking) in work done for them by the Copying Room. The following statement shows the average number of words typed per hour in the Copying Room for two weeks in June, 1940, and for four weeks in recent months:-
    Average number
    of words typed
    per hour     		Number of
    Staff    		 Average number of words
    per hour
    per officer
    22nd June 1940 6,384 7 912
    29th June 1940 7,681 8 960
    27th October 1945 10,200 11 927
    1st December 1945 14,104 12 1,175
    22nd December 1945 14,405 12 1,200
    6th April 1946 15,055 12 1,255
    An average of 900 per officer is normally expected. It is considered, however, that this Department's Typing Staff would be capable of maintaining good work on an average of 1,000 words per hour per officer, but, even on this basis, it is clear that the staff requires to be strengthened by three further officers; of these one should be a Shorthand Typist and the other two Copying Typists. The figures given in the above table not only justify the increase in the Typing staff since 1939 and the further increase now recommended; they also are a measure of the increase in the volume of work done in the Secretariat and the Accounts and Establishment Branch.
  7. In the foregoing no suggestions are made with regard to the Passport and Travel Permit Office which is working under a staffing formula approved by the Department of Finance which is at present satisfactory, nor to the Library staff which has recently been strengthened and should be capable for the present of dealing satisfactorily with the work falling to it. Nor has any reference been made to the increase in the volume of work done orally (i.e. delegations, conferences, interviews, telephone conversations, etc.), especially by the Secretary and Assistant Secretary. It has been the experience of all officers, however, that an increasing proportion of the time of the Secretary and Assistant Secretary is taken up by work of this nature lessening their availability for Departmental work. Finally, this memorandum does not make any proposals for redistributing or strengthening the staff of the Secretariat other than that the third existing First Secretary post cannot be dispensed with and will have to be confirmed. It seems clear, however, that this in itself will not be sufficient.
  8. A chart showing the present organisation of the headquarters office (other than the Passport and Travel Permit Office) is attached.4

1 Not located.

2 Meaning, respectively: Minor Staff Officer; Clerical Officer; Writing Assistant; Paper Keeper/Messenger.

3 Not printed.

4 Not printed.

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