I move:—
That in view of the continuance of widespread unemployment amongst all sections, the Dáil is of opinion that the condition that preference must be given to ex-National Army men which is attached to State grants for road and relief schemes should be discontinued forthwith, so as to allow local authorities to give a preference to unemployed men with dependents whether or not they have served in the National Army.
In moving this motion I think it well to state at the outset that it has not been drafted in any spirit of antipathy to unemployed ex-National Army men, because I have as much sympathy for unemployed ex-National Army men as I have for any other class of unemployed worker. I put this down in the interests of fair play to all classes of unemployed workers. The Dáil will, I think, realise that at the present time we are in the midst of an unemployment crisis which is perhaps the greatest within living memory. We have all round us thousands of unemployed with no means of sustenance or with inadequate sustenance. In any case the unemployed workers are suffering from that poverty and destitution which inevitably follow in the wake of idleness. It seems to me that our business as the national legislative authority ought to be to do the best we can for all our unemployed workers but that if there is to be any suffering, if one class more than another is going to suffer, that suffering ought to be apportioned to the capacity of the unemployed to bear it. Our aim ought to be to endeavour to save the weakest, to endeavour to confine as much of that suffering as possible to those who are, comparatively speaking, better able to bear it than others.
In this respect I want to say that the condition imposed by the Government on State grants for road and relief schemes is not calculated to help the weakest or to save the weakest. Rather is it calculated to give a preference to people who are better able to bear poverty and the suffering which is inevitable in the case of unemployment, while visiting all the punishment, all the suffering and all the evil effects of unemployment on others who are least able to bear it. The Government condition of preference for ex-National Army men is capable of applying in this fashion. A grant, we will say, is made to a certain local authority with this condition imposed. The local authority receives the money and immediately it is known that this money is available for any scheme there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of applicants for work. The local authority is anxious to do the best it can for all those who are unemployed, and in particular for those of the unemployed who have dependents. Under the conditions imposed by the Government it has to give a preference to ex-National Army men, with the result that an unmarried ex-National Army man, who has perhaps his father, or brothers or sisters working, is entitled to a preference over a man with a wife and four or five children, who has no source of income or no means of sustenance whatever.
I put it to the Dáil that, much as it may sympathise with the case of the unemployed ex-National Army man, that sympathy should not be carried to the extent of giving a single ex-National Army man a preference of employment over a married man with a wife and a few children, without any source of sustenance whatever. The Minister for Finance has intimated on a number of occasions that he recognises that this preference could not go on for ever. He said that last year. He indicated it recently again, and I think it is time that the Government should take a definite decision on this matter and decide to withdraw that preference so as to enable local authorities to give preference to unemployed men with dependents whether or not they have served in the National Army. This motion is framed so as to avoid any suggestion of bias against ex-National Army men. It is possible if the motion is carried, and if the preference mentioned in it instead of the present condition is applied, that in State grants for road or relief schemes the unemployed ex-National Army man who has dependents would be entitled to as much consideration as any other unemployed man with dependents. In other words, local authorities would be able to look at the matter in this way: "Here are a number of unemployed men with dependents; here are a number of single men or men with no dependents, and we consider that in this crisis we would be doing justice to the weakest and the most needy if we gave a preference to the man with dependents over the man who has no dependents." That is the position stated simply. I think when this preference has gone on for two or two-and-a-half years, perhaps three years in some cases, that the Government ought to decide that it has gone on for long enough and that some consideration ought to be given now to the claims of unemployed workers with dependents, whether or not they have served in the National Army. I put it to the Government that this discrimination against people who have not served in the National Army is not fair.
The money from which these grants are made is raised by general taxation. It is not raised by taxation on ex-National Army men, and, therefore, I do not think it is fair for the Government to utilise money which they receive in general taxation for the purpose of subsidising, or giving preference to, ex-National Army men: in other words, to subsidise one section of the community on the taxes collected from the community as a whole. At this stage, I think there is everything to be said for the abolition of the condition which attached to the grants I have indicated, and for the substitution of a fresh condition enabling local authorities to give preference to men who have dependents, if necessary ex-National Army men, but above all, to men who have dependents above the men who have no dependents.
