I move:
Go ndeontar i gcuntas suim nách mó ná £10,490,000 chun no mar chabhair chun íoctha na Muirear a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1938, i gcóir seirbhísí áirithe puiblí, eadhon:—
£ |
||
2 |
An tOireachtas |
28,400 |
3 |
Roinn Uachtarán na hArd-Chomhairle |
4,400 |
4 |
An tArd-Scrúdóir |
6,000 |
5 |
Oifig an Aire Airgid |
22,900 |
6 |
Oifig na gCoimisinéirí Ioncuim |
269,500 |
7 |
Pinsin tSean-Aoise |
1,150,000 |
8 |
Deolchairí Cúitimh |
3,400 |
9 |
Coimisiúin agus Fiosrúcháin Speisialta |
3,600 |
10 |
Oifig na nOibreacha Puiblí |
39,100 |
11 |
Oibreacha agus Foirgintí Puiblí |
325,800 |
12 |
Saotharlann Stáit |
2,570 |
13 |
Coimisiún na Stát-Sheirbhíse |
8,000 |
14 |
Cúiteamh i gCailliúna Maoine |
16,000 |
15 |
Cúiteamh i nDíobhála Pearsanta |
300 |
16 |
Aois-Liúntaisí agus Liúntaisí Fágála |
148,000 |
17 |
Rátaí ar Mhaoin an Rialtais |
32,300 |
18 |
An tSeirbhis Sheicréideach |
6,700 |
19 |
Coimisiún na nDleacht |
1,800 |
20 |
Costaisí fén Acht Timpeal Toghachán, agus fé Acht na nGiúirithe |
Nil |
21 |
Costaisí Ilghnéitheacha |
2,500 |
22 |
Páipéarachas agus Clódóireacht |
53,000 |
23 |
Measadóireacht agus Suirbhéireacht Teorann |
10,440 |
24 |
Suirbhéi reacht an Ordonáis |
10,630 |
25 |
Deontaisí Breise Talmhaíochta |
450,000 |
26 |
Dlí-Mhuirearacha |
22,500 |
27 |
Longlann Inis Sionnach |
3,200 |
28 |
Príomh-Scoileanna agus Coláistí |
79,650 |
29 |
Forbairt Chadhnraide Leictreachais |
16,000 |
30 |
Oifig an tSaor-Chíosa |
1,250 |
31 |
Bainistí Stoc Rialtais |
15,320 |
32 |
Oifig an Aire Dlí agus Cirt |
12,500 |
33 |
Gárda Síochána |
664,000 |
34 |
Príosúin |
25,000 |
35 |
Cúirt Dúithche |
12,900 |
36 |
Cúirt Uachtarach agus Ard-Chúirt an Bhreithiúnais |
16,500 |
37 |
Oifig Chlárathachta na Talmhan agus Oifig Chlárathachta na nDintiúirí |
16,000 |
38 |
An Chúirt Chuarda |
17,000 |
39 |
Oifig na nAnnálacha Puiblí |
1,630 |
40 |
Tabhartaisí agus Tiomanta Déirciúla |
850 |
41 |
Rialtas Aitiúil agus Sláinte Puiblí |
415,300 |
42 |
Oifig an Ard-Chlárathóra |
4,200 |
43 |
Gealtlann Dúndroma |
5,000 |
44 |
Arachas Sláinte Náisiúnta |
98,000 |
45 |
Oifig an Aire Oideachais |
59,400 |
46 |
Bun-Oideachas |
1,350,000 |
47 |
Meadhon-Oideachas |
144,390 |
48 |
Ceárd-Oideachas |
87,950 |
49 |
Eolaíocht agus Eladha |
17,250 |
50 |
Scoileanna Ceartúcháin agus Saothair |
55,000 |
51 |
An Gailerí Náisiúnta |
3,000 |
52 |
Talmhaíocht |
212,450 |
53 |
Iascach |
13,920 |
54 |
Tailte |
702,600 |
55 |
Foraoiseacht |
51,000 |
56 |
Seirbhísí na Gaeltachta |
37,000 |
57 |
Tionnscal agus Tráchtáil |
155,700 |
58 |
Seirbhísí Iompair agus Meteoraíochta |
24,780 |
59 |
An Bínse Bóthair larainn |
950 |
60 |
Muir-Sheirbhís |
3,207 |
61 |
Arachas Díomhaointis agus Congnamh Díomhaointis |
400,000 |
62 |
Oifig Chlárathachta Mhaoine Tionnscail agus Tráchtála |
4,970 |
63 |
Puist agus Telegrafa |
770,000 |
64 |
Fóirleatha Nea-shrangach |
20,500 |
65 |
An tArm |
531,900 |
66 |
Arm-Phinsin |
200,860 |
67 |
Ghóthaí Coigríche |
30,500 |
68 |
Cumann na Náisiún |
4,300 |
69 |
Scéimeanna Fostaíochta |
750,000 |
70 |
Deolchairí agus Conganta Airgid um Easportáil |
750,000 |
71 |
Iasachtaí Coigríche Dháil Eireann d'Aisíoc |
2,900 |
72 |
Pinsin do Bhaintreacha agus do Dhílleachtaithe |
83,333 |
An tIomlán |
10,490,000 |
|
That a sum not exceeding £10,490,000 be granted on account for or towards defraying the Charges that will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1938, for certain public services, namely:—
£ |
||
2 |
Oireachtas |
28,400 |
3 |
Department of the President of the Executive Council |
4,400 |
4 |
Comptroller and Auditor General |
6,000 |
5 |
Office of the Minister for Finance |
22,900 |
6 |
Office of the Revenue Commissioners |
269,500 |
7 |
Old Age Pensions |
1,150,000 |
8 |
Compensation Bounties |
3,400 |
9 |
Commissions and Special Inquiries |
3,600 |
10 |
Office of Public Works |
39,100 |
11 |
Public Works and Buildings |
325,800 |
12 |
State Laboratory |
2,570 |
13 |
Civil Service Commission |
8,000 |
14 |
Property Losses Compensation |
16,000 |
15 |
Personal Injuries Compensation |
300 |
16 |
Superannuation and Retired Allowances |
148,000 |
17 |
Rates on Government Property |
32,300 |
18 |
Secret Service |
6,700 |
19 |
Tariff Commission |
1,800 |
20 |
Expenses under the Electoral Act, and the Juries Act |
Nil |
21 |
Miscellaneous Expenses |
2,500 |
22 |
Stationery and Printing |
53,000 |
23 |
Valuation and Boundary Survey |
10,440 |
24 |
Ordnance Survey |
10,630 |
25 |
Supplementary Agricultural Grants |
450,000 |
26 |
Law Charges |
22,500 |
27 |
Haulbowline Dockyard |
3,200 |
28 |
Universities and Colleges |
79,650 |
29 |
Electrical Battery Development |
16,000 |
30 |
Quit Rent Office |
1,250 |
31 |
Management of Government Stocks |
15,320 |
32 |
Office of the Minister for Justice |
12,500 |
33 |
Gárda Síochána |
664,000 |
34 |
Prisons |
25,000 |
35 |
District Court |
12,900 |
36 |
Supreme Court and High Court of Justice |
16,500 |
37 |
Land Registry and Registry of Deeds |
16,000 |
38 |
Circuit Court |
17,000 |
39 |
Public Record Office |
1,630 |
40 |
Charitable Donations and Bequests |
850 |
41 |
Local Government and Public Health |
415,300 |
42 |
General Register Office |
4,200 |
43 |
Dundrum Asylum |
5,000 |
44 |
National Health Insurance |
98,000 |
45 |
Office of the Minister for Education |
59,400 |
46 |
Primary Education |
1,350,000 |
47 |
Secondary Education |
144,390 |
48 |
Technical Instruction |
87,950 |
49 |
Science and Art |
17,250 |
50 |
Reformatory and Industrial Schools |
55,000 |
51 |
National Gallery |
3,000 |
52 |
Agriculture |
212,450 |
53 |
Fisheries |
13,920 |
54 |
Lands |
702,600 |
55 |
Forestry |
51,000 |
56 |
Gaeltacht Services |
37,000 |
57 |
Industry and Commerce |
155,700 |
58 |
Transport and Meteorological Services |
24,780 |
59 |
Railway Tribunal |
950 |
60 |
Marine Service |
3,207 |
61 |
Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Assistance |
400,000 |
62 |
Industrial and Commercial Property Registration Office |
4,970 |
63 |
Posts and Telegraphs |
770,000 |
64 |
Wireless Broadcasting |
20,500 |
65 |
Army |
531,900 |
66 |
Army Pensions |
200,860 |
67 |
External Affairs |
30,500 |
68 |
League of Nations |
4,300 |
69 |
Employment Schemes |
750,000 |
70 |
Export Bounties and Subsidies |
750,000 |
71 |
Repayment of Dáil Eireann External Loans |
2,900 |
72 |
Widows' and Orphans' Pensions |
83,333 |
Total |
10,490,000 |
|
The purpose of the Vote on Account, as the Dáil is aware, is to enable sums to be made available for the carrying on of what are termed the Supply Services during the interval in every financial year which must elapse before the Dáil has had an opportunity of discussing each Supply Service Estimate in detail and passing it. Normally, the greater part of the first four months of the financial year has elapsed before all such Estimates have been considered by the Dáil, and before the annual Appropriation Act has become law, and it is therefore customary to provide in the Vote on Account sufficient moneys to cover the working of the various Departments and services for a period of four months. The amount necessary, accordingly, is, in most cases, one-third of the Estimate, but in certain cases where special circumstances exist a departure from that fraction is necessary and the necessary modifications in the fraction have been made, accordingly, in those Estimates in which such a departure is unavoidable.
The total net provision to be made for the Supply Service Estimates for the coming financial year is £29,262,269, and, as may be seen from the general abstract of the Estimates which is included in the volume circulated to Deputies this figure shows a net increase of £49,251 over that of last year.
I think I ought to direct the attention of the House for a moment or two to this figure of £49,251. I have seen it stated that it has been "calculated by an erroneous and fallacious comparison" that, actually, "as compared with the corresponding figures of a year ago, the present Supply Estimates represent an increase of no less than £1,740,486." The first of these statements raises a grave issue for, in so many words, it charges the Executive with issuing in an official publication figures in regard to this important matter of public expenditure which are false, misleading and deceitful. What is the basis for the charge? It is that the table entitled "General Abstract of the Estimates for Public Services for 1937-38," compared with 1936-37, which forms one of the documents prefixed to the details of the Estimate is "erroneous and fallacious." In that General Abstract there is set out in regard to each of the services the estimate, which we have been able to frame, of its cost in the coming year and its estimated cost in the present year. In some cases there are increases; in other cases there are decreases. But the net effect is to show an increase in the estimated cost for 1937-38 of £49,251. How could such an abstract be made upon a basis which would be "erroneous and fallacious" and a knowledge of that fact escape this House? The House knows what has already been provided for each service covered by the Supply Estimate in this year. The House has discussed these Estimates in detail and has voted the sums which are set down here as being the sums which the House is prepared to supply for these public services. If the Estimate is "erroneous or fallacious" it could only be either because it understates or overstates the amount which is required and which has been voted in the present year or because the Estimates, which are submitted for the coming year, are framed upon such a basis that past experience shows them to be deliberately "erroneous and fallacious." When we say that a statement is an erroneous one we imply that it contains errors of fact which vitiate it. I should like that the organ responsible for that grave charge against not merely the Government but the officers of the public service as a whole would tell the country which of the Estimates contains errors or is vitiated by errors? If it should happen to be that we have misstated the figures for the Supply Services in the current year, no doubt the Opposition will call our attention to the fact and, no doubt, the authority which has made itself responsible for this grave statement is prepared to point out in which of the 72 services covered by these Estimates that erroneous statement is made. If, on the other hand, the allegation is that the cost of these services for the coming year will be, according to past experience, much greater than we have set down in the volume as our estimate of the cost, then I suppose the authority which has made itself responsible for levelling this charge against the Executive will not delay in coming forward and giving the specific item or items on which it bases its allegation. Is the charge levelled against the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, whose net Estimate for the coming year is £32,066 higher than it has been for the present year? Or is it against the Minister for Agriculture, whose net Estimate for 1937-38 is £637,350 as compared with a net Estimate of £665,610 for the year 1936-37? Or is it against the Minister for Lands, whose net Estimate for 1937-38 is £1,743,146 as compared with £1,610,821 in the current year? If the charge is levelled against none of these Ministers or, indeed, any other Minister, shall we be told by this august authority that, in fact, no error can be discovered in the abstract of Estimates and that, therefore, this grave allegation against the honour and probity of the Executive is withdrawn?
The second assertion which is being made in regard to Supply Estimates which we are discussing is that they actually show, in comparison with this year's Estimate, an increase of £1,747,000. I wish to say that this statement can be shown by an examination of the printed facts, each of which ought to be within the knowledge of anyone professing to be an authority, to be, in the words of whosoever is responsible for this charge, "erroneous and fallacious." This year, the volume of Supply Estimates in its final form, was available to the House and to the Deputies on the 25th February. Last year, however, on the 3rd March, only a limited number of uncorrected proof copies of the volume were available, and the volume in its final form was not distributed until the 14th March. The Vote on Account, however was taken on this day last year. In moving the Vote on Account on that occasion I said, as reported in volume 60, column 1563:—
"From the White Paper which has been circulated it will be noted that the total amount required in the coming year for the Supply Services for which there is existing statutory authority amounts to £27,514,783, representing a decrease by comparison with the amount ultimately voted for the corresponding services in the current year of £823,806. I have to point out, however, that there are two important facts to be brought into consideration when we are discussing that figure. The first is in connection with the Supplementary Agricultural Grant in respect of which the White Paper shows a decrease of £370,000. When the printed volume of Estimates in its final form is circulated within a week or so it will indicate that, as soon as the Oireachtas has passed the necessary legislation, a Supplementary Estimate for a further amount of £370,000 in respect of Vote 25 will be presented, bringing the total of the grant for the relief of rates on agricultural land for the present year up to £1,870,000, that is the same figure as last year."
It is to be noted that this statement was made before the volume of Estimates was published, and that the footnote mentioned in it was duly appended to Vote 25—Supplementary Agricultural Grants—in the volume as published. It is clear, therefore, that the Dáil, the Press and the public, in so far as the public was kept accurately informed by the organs which profess to serve it, had full knowledge that though the nominal amount for Supply Services was given as £27,514,000 odd, in actual fact it was going to be greater by at least £370,000, as soon as the necessary legislation, which at that time and for several years before had been enacted annually, was passed by the Oireachtas. Everyone interested, therefore, was warned by my statement in the House and by the footnote, and everyone therefore knew, at this date last year, that the expenditure to be provided for was £27,884,000. I presume that a fact so generally known would not be unknown to the author of the statement that "the present Estimates show an increase of no less than £1,747,000 as compared with last year's figures." Yet, the difference between £29,262,000 and £27,864,000 is considerably less than £1,747,000. How, therefore, are we to explain this latter "erroneous and fallacious figure"? I do not propose to ascribe it to ignorance of the facts, but the alternative explanation cannot be any more satisfactory to those who have to make it.
From the same source as this "erroneous and fallacious figure" has come, there have emanated a number of other reflections on the present Estimates which warrant some examination. We are told, for instance —I cite this not because I desire to discuss it at length but to show how, in anxiety to misrepresent the true position in regard to the finances of this State and the public expenditure thereof as in other matters of fundamental importance, the same wanton disregard of published official reports and documents is manifested—that five years ago, taxation was £7,000,000 less than now. The House, of course, knows that reference to the respective White Papers for 1931-32 and 1936-37 and a simple sum in subtraction would show that comparison to be "erroneous and fallacious" by millions of pounds.
What again is to be made of the statement that
"in connection with the Estimates, it is to be observed that the various pensions paid by the State under different headings now reach the colossal total of £4,763,000"?
I do not challenge the accuracy of the figures but I do say that the statement, in the form in which it is made, is a deliberate suggestio falsi. It is “erroneous and fallacious” in the sense that it is intended to be deceptive and deceitful. It is intended to convey to the public mind the implication that almost £5,000,000 is paid out by the State as pensions to former public functionaries, members of the Civil Service, the Army and the Guards. The plain truth is that this aggregate figure includes £3,466,000, odd, for old age pensions, £443,000 for superannuation and retired allowances, £602,000 for Army pensions and £250,000 for widows' and orphans' pensions, so that, of this sum of £4,700,000, no less than £3,700,000 is ascribable not to pensions in the generally accepted sense of the term of pay deferred and earned by years of previous service but to two social services the benefits under which might, with equal accuracy and reason, be described not as “pensions” but as “allowances.”
The implication contained in the statement that
"the various pensions paid under the different headings have now reached the colossal total of £4,763,000"
is that these services ought to be cut and that, of course, the pruning should take place among the more colossal. That, I presume, is the policy of the Opposition because that is the policy of the organ which supports them in the country and that is the policy to which, when they were originally put in office by the people of this country, they gave effect, when the first of their official acts was to reduce some part of this "colossal figure" of, at that time, £3,200,000, which was being paid out for old age pensions and allowances to blind and infirm people.
This year, we may presume, the Opposition will have an opportunity of putting its policy before the country. This year, as in other years, the Party organ which has made this statement—that no less than £4,700,000 is being paid by way of pensions by the State—is going to ask the people to vote for the Opposition, when the plain implication of the statement made in regard to these Estimates and in relation to this particular branch of the social services is that the "colossal figure" ought to be pruned and that, if pruning is to be done, it has got to be done on the larger services. Yesterday, when a measure to amend and extend the original Widows' and Orphans' Pensions Act, which was introduced by this Government, came before the Dáil —a measure which ought to have been passed by the Opposition years ago if what they say about the happy condition of the country when they were in office is true—the Opposition got up and welcomed the measure and the very same organ of the Press which refers to this "colossal expenditure" upon pensions writes a leading article this morning praising the Government and commending it for that Act. Next year, however, that Act is going to cost us an additional £200,000. That additional provision will have to be made in the coming Budget. When the Estimates for 1938-39 come to be published, notwithstanding the enthusiasm which was manifested yesterday in the House and which is manifested this morning in the newspaper to which I have been referring, I have no doubt that we shall be reading in the selfsame editorial columns the statement that "it is to be observed that the various pensions paid by the State under the different headings now reach the colossal total of £4,963,000." Is it not time that we had done with such hypocrisy? The public is sick of the attitude of the Opposition in this House and down the country. To every clamour and every demand made upon the public purse they lend their voice and their assistance but when it comes to a suggestion of paying for it, then we hear a great deal about "the crushing burden of taxation."