asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the number of unemployed at present in the Saorstát, and likewise the number in each of the last five years.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - UNEMPLOYED STATISTICS.
DOMHNALL O MUIRGHEASA
The number of persons registered as unemployed in the Saorstát on the 12th July, 1926, was 21,931. The numbers registered as unemployed on the corresponding dates in the preceding four years were as follows:—
|
1925 |
25,212 |
|
1924 |
44,971 |
|
1923 |
32,016 |
|
1922 |
41,399 |
Am I to take it that it was on the basis of these figures that the Minister made a statement in Limerick that there was less unemployment in the Free State this year than any time during the past five years? If so, will the Minister state whether these figures which he had quoted put him in a position to make that statement with any degree of accuracy, in view of the fact that the figures he has read out represent only a certain proportion of the total number of unemployed persons, though the Minister has admitted that he has not the figures as regards the total number of such persons?
My Limerick statement, in so far as I made any statement on this matter, was not on the basis of these figures.
Would the Minister say on what figures he made the statement?
That question was not asked. I cannot give details. The figures relate to employment and not to unemployment.
Can the Minister give us information on which we may estimate the proportion of unemployment or employment to-day as compared with other years?
The Deputy has to take into consideration the amount of employment in agriculture and, in regard to industrial matters, the added workers by reason of protective tariffs and such schemes as the Shannon scheme.
Can the Minister give us the basis on which conclusions of the kind that he has come to have been arrived at?
That is the basis.
Can the Minister give us information regarding the extent to which unemployment stamps have been purchased and used, and such matters of that kind?
I can, if a question is put down.
Can the Minister give us the information which he had at his disposal and which enabled him to make the statement that there was less unemployment now than at any time during the last five years? If the Minister has such information it is, I think, his duty to give it.
The statement I made was that there was more employment now than at any time during the last five years. I base that, in the first instance, on the added numbers employed by reason of protection, and, in the second instance, on such schemes as the Shannon scheme.
Then may I take it that the Minister was not properly reported?
No. I would like to see from what the Deputy has quoted before I would describe it as inaccurate.
Did the Minister take away the number who had been disemployed, as well as adding to the numbers who had been newly employed? Did he put the other side of the account before the public, that is to say, while adding the number now employed who had been hitherto unemployed, he took away those who have been disemployed?
I had these figures.
Can the Minister help us in that way?
This is helping us.
Is this the only way you arrive at this conclusion?
The facts relate to employment and the figures relate to unemployment. Taking the two together, there is a reliable reason for the statement that there is more employment now in the Free State, or even, as it is now reported in the papers, that there is less unemployment. I made that statement, and it is now backed by what I have stated to-day.
It was merely a case of guess-work?
By no means.