asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether it is his intention to introduce legislation before the Recess to amend the Unemployment Insurance Acts, so as to enable unemployment benefit to be paid to persons who, through prolonged unemployment, have exhausted their credits.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - THE UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE ACTS.
TOMAS MAC EOIN
The Minister for Industry and Commerce has nothing to add to the reply which he gave to a question by Deputy Corish on the 30th April last. No fresh legislation is contemplated.
Does that mean the whole of the summer and the early part of the winter are to pass, and that people who are disqualified for unemployment benefit through continuous unemployment are to remain a charge upon the poor rate, or upon the charity of the public, or upon what they can take?
Is the President aware that since the Minister for Industry and Commerce gave his reply to Deputy Corish, a considerable number of men have ceased to be eligible to draw benefit, and that the ranks of the unemployed have been added to by some hundreds, perhaps some thousands, in the interval, and does he not think that there is a good case, and that the Government should try to ease the situation?
I have been looking at the Minister's previous reply. He said in the course of his answer: "Having regard to the season of the year, to the measures taken in the Budget to stimulate employment, and to the present state of the Unemployment Fund, I think it is difficult to argue that these figures necessitate any present extension of benefit. The persons who have exhausted their rights are persons who have had relatively few contributions paid for them, that is, relatively little insurable employment in the last four and a half years"——
Hear, hear.
"—and in having had their actual contribution multiplied already five times, they have exhausted any reasonable claim to be provided for out of the Unemployment Fund."
Does the President contemplate substituting anything else for the Unemployment Fund, so that the people may be enabled to live?
The Minister had in mind the advantages to be derived from the measures that were outlined in the Budget. He had also in mind the huge sums that are in course of distribution through the Road Fund and the Building Facilities Act, that was passed this year.
Surely, the Minister will agree that there are too many men who are out of benefit, so far as unemployment insurance is concerned, for the Government to stand idly by without doing anything for them.
Would the President say how he expects men who have been unemployed for months, some of them for over a year, to live until the funds which the President has said are set aside for roads and reconstruction, become available? Is the President aware that although the county councils have been reformed and certain sums have been allocated to them for road work, the money has not yet been placed at their disposal?
Does the President realise that the figures given by the Minister for Industry and Commerce on the date he answered my last question, are not a true reflex of the situation, and that his figures were based only on the number of people who made application for benefit in the last benefit year?
No, but I must say that if I were to accept all the statements made to me to-day I should have to admit that the country was in an absolutely insolvent state, and I hesitate to admit that.
We do not ask you to do so.
Does the President not understand that there are 40,000 or 50,000 persons unemployed, that there are 10,000, 15,000 or 20,000 who, within the next few weeks will be out of benefit entirely, and that no provision is being made to meet the needs of these people, very many of whom have been unemployed for months and months?
Not through this particular fund, but through other services. Considerable efforts have been made to afford employment. It is not by reason of benefits from a fund which at present is in an almost insolvent state that this can be done.
Whether the means come from the Insurance Fund or from other funds, people must live. We will assume that. They may die if they wish, but supposing they are to live, how does the President propose that they shall live in the meantime, while he is waiting for these Budget proposals to become active, and operative, and absorbent? How are the people to carry on?
Through the means I have suggested; that is, the distribution of the moneys out of the Road Fund, through the Building Facilities Act, through the damage to property compensation, and through the effective measures that are inevitable from the Budget.
Ineffective measures.
Will the President say when the money for work on the roads will be made available?
I will undertake to have inquiries made about that without delay.