asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state the total number of persons employed in the manufacture of (1) tobacco, (2) boots and shoes, (3) glass bottles, (4) soap and candles, (5) motor bodies, (6) sugar confectionery (including jam), (7) brushmaking, (8) shirts and collars, (9) blankets, blanketing and rugs (other than floor rugs), (10) hosiery and knitted goods, (11) wholesale clothing (i.e., men's and boys' factory-made clothing), hats, caps, ties and umbrellas, (12) handicraft tailoring, dressmaking, millinery, corsets, etc., (13) furniture, (14) metallic bedsteads, (15) oatmeal, (16) margarine, (17) rosary beads, (18) woollens and (19) down quilts, on the 1st September, 1933.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Industrial Employment.
The information requested by the Deputy is not yet available as the collection of the voluntary returns of employment on the 1st September, 1933, in respect of the various protected industries is still proceeding.
Would it be correct to say that the person who gave information that unemployment had decreased by 33? per cent. is, as in the case of the President's falsehood, not prepared to give evidence in the matter?
The number of registered unemployed has decreased by 33? per cent. as compared with last year.
Would the Minister explain why the information asked for in this question is not available for members of the Dáil, while it is available apparently for members and speakers of the Fianna Fáil Party?
The information is not available for anybody.
Hear, hear.
The information desired relates to employment in protected industries on 1st September, 1933. That information is based on voluntary returns from the firms concerned. A number of firms concerned have not yet made the voluntary returns, and consequently the information is not available.
Therefore, I suppose we may take it that as regards the figures given by the Minister and by some members of the Fianna Fáil Party they were drawing on their own imaginations.
Any figures given by the Fianna Fáil Party relating to employment in protected industries are always an under-estimate.
An under-estimate of unemployment, I agree.
Can the Minister say when he expects to be able to give these returns?
I cannot say. Deputies should understand that firms are making these returns voluntarily, and while steps are being taken to speed up the returns, it is impossible to say when they will be completed.
Are we to understand that if one firm stands out in this particular matter this House then is going to be denied the only material it has for comparing statistically the industrial position in the country this year with, say, last year?
The practice has been that, if one firm fails to make a voluntary return in a reasonable time, then the figures contained in the latest returns from that particular firm are used.
Will the Minister, if he has not this information fully completed in the way he would desire in a fortnight's time, issue a return, as the date on which it should be issued, 1st September last, is more than two months ago?
The figures relating to these six-monthly returns have very rarely been published—I do not think they have ever been published—until some time after the date they were due to be published.