I move:—
Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £652,280 chun slánuithe na suime is gá chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1938, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí i dtaobh Arachais Díomhaointis agus Malartan Fostuíochta (maraon le síntiúisí do Chiste an Díomhaointis) agus i dtaobh Conganta Díomhaointis (9 Edw. 7, c. 7; 10 agus 11 Geo. 5, c. 30; 11 Geo. 5, c.1; 11 agus 12 Geo.5, c. 15; 12 Geo. 5, c. 7; Uimh. 17 de 1923; Uimh. 26 agus Uimh. 59 de 1924; Uimh. 21 de 1926; Uimh. 33 de 1930; agus Uimh. 44 agus Uimh. 46 de 1933; agus Uimh. 38 de 1935).
That a sum not exceeding £652,280 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1938, for the Salaries and Expenses in connection with Unemployment Insurance and Employment Exchanges (including contributions to the Unemployment Fund) and Unemployment Assistance (9 Edw. 7, c. 7; 10 and 11 Geo. 5, c. 30; 11 Geo. 5, c. 1; 11 and 12 Geo. 5, c. 15; 12 Geo. 5, c. 7; No. 17 of 1923; Nos. 26 and 59 of 1924; No. 21 of 1926; No.33 of 1930; and Nos. 44 and 46 of 1933; and No.38 of 1935).
The details of the various sub-heads of the Estimate are set out in the Book of Estimates. Deputies will have noted that, in respect of only two sub-heads, is there any considerable change in the amount to be provided. Under sub-head G—Contribution to the Unemployment Fund—an increased provision of £15,000 has been made. The contribution to the Unemployment Insurance Fund varies with the sale of unemployment insurance stamps, which is estimated for the current financial year at £960,000. The State grant is two-sevenths of that amount and, as it is anticipated that the revenue of the fund will increase during the year, in consequence of increased employment, increased provision in respect of that State grant has to be made.
Under sub-head J—Unemployment Assistance—there is a decrease in the amount required of £379,000. It is estimated that expenditure on unemployment assistance during the year will be less by that amount than the amount provided during last year. As Deputies are aware, it is intended that widespread schemes of employment, financed wholly or partly from central funds, will be continued during the year and will, it is anticipated, absorb large numbers of persons many of whom might otherwise be recipients of unemployment assistance. That provision by way of work obviates, to an extent, the necessity for provision by way of unemployment assistance. I may say that it is intended that the Employment Period Orders to be made during the current year will be similar in scope and in duration to those made last year and no part of the estimated reduction in expenditure is attributable to these Orders. Apart from the decreased unemployment caused by the provision of relief work and by the exclusions effected by the Employment Period Orders, the number of recipients of unemployment assistance is tending to decrease and we think that that tendency is likely to be maintained during the current year. Consequently, we anticipate that the smaller sum asked for this year will be sufficient to cover the cost of the service.
During the course of the year representations were made by Deputies, by way of Parliamentary Questions and otherwise to my Department, as to various aspects of the administration of this section, both in relation to the unemployment insurance scheme and the unemployment assistance scheme. Speaking generally, the work of the section is now proceeding very smoothly. In connection with the Unemployment Assistance Act most of the initial difficulties which caused complaints during the earlier years of its operations have now disappeared. In fact the complaints now received are few and far between, and capable of being dealt with without difficulty. I do not know if it is desired to have any review of the general employment and unemployment position of this State.
During the course of this year the number of persons insured against unemployment in accordance with the provisions of the Unemployment Insurance Act increased by 11,708. That increase in the number of persons insured under the Act is not, by itself, to be taken as an indication of an increase in insurable employment, as other causes might conceivably have operated to produce that result. The contribution income of the Employment Insurance Fund has also increased, and that increase in the contribution income is a surer basis on which to base calculations than the increase in the number of persons in insurable occupations under the Act. The report of the Departmental committee upon employment and unemployment published some time ago will have given Deputies a certain amount of information in that direction. A further report from that committee is in course of printing at the present time and will be published in the near future. According to the calculations carried out by the committee, the estimated average weekly number of persons employed in insurable occupations during the calendar year 1936 was 241,000. That figure represents an increase of 16,000 on the calendar year 1935 and an increase of 53,000 on the financial year 1931-1932. There was evidence also obtained during the course of the year concerning employment in agriculture. On some previous occasions we have had discussion here and we had a certain amount of contention as to the trend of employment in agriculture.
The number of males employed in agriculture in June, 1936, as published sometime ago showed an increase of 4,708 over the number employed in 1931. The 1936 figure showed an increase as against 1931 in each of the three classes for which statistics are compiled, that is the number of females; the number of males who are permanently employed, and the number of other males temporarily employed. As compared with 1935, the figures for 1936 showed an increase in the number of males permanently employed in farm work. But there was at the same time a decrease shown in the number of males temporarily employed. As regards the unemployment situation, it has been contended here that unemployment had increased, and the live register figures are frequently cited as evidence in support of that contention. I have frequently pointed out in the Dáil and elsewhere that the live register figures since 1932 are not comparable with those of the preceding years. The composition of these figures was affected (1) by administrative changes and later on by legislative changes, which had tended to attract greater numbers to the live register. In recent years the live register includes thousands of persons who are not ordinarily unemployed in that sense of the word. The Unemployment Assistance Act rendered these persons eligible for financial assistance. It rendered eligible not only able-bodied persons who are dependent upon wages for their livelihood, but also other groups, such persons as small farmers and members of their families provided they can show that their weekly means do not exceed certain statutory limits. For example, investigations made into the circumstances of the applicants for unemployment assistance returned in December, 1934, revealed that of the total, 41 per cent. were owners or occupiers, or relatives of owners or occupiers of farms. It was always the case that the great majority of such people were at times unoccupied in the past. They were unoccupied, but they never appeared in the live register until now when there is the stimulus of the Unemployment Assistance Act and the hope of work on relief schemes. On account of these changes the Departmental committee reported that it was impossible to disentangle the effects on the live register of administrative and legislative changes from other causes that were operating, but that there was no evidence that unemployment had increased since 1932, and that after 1936 there was very definite evidence of a considerable decrease as compared with 1931. An analysis of the live register was made as for the 28th September, 1936, in relation to the nearest corresponding date in 1935, that is the 30th September in 1935. That analysis showed that in the four county boroughs during that period of 12 months, unemployment, as represented by the total live register, had decreased by 13.8 per cent.; in the rest of Leinster it had decreased by 18.1 per cent.; in the rest of Munster by 27.3 per cent.; in Connaught by 14.6 per cent., and in the three Ulster counties by 12 per cent. The total average decrease all over the Saorstát was 17.9 per cent. In that connection the committee reported that the total decrease in the number on the live register for the 12 monthly period is, to some extent, attributable to emigration, and especially to emigration to Great Britain, which, as was pointed out in the preliminary report of the Census of Population, was always of considerable dimensions, but which, in recent years, has been stimulated by the cessation of emigration to the United States of America and to the special circumstances prevailing at the moment in Great Britain. The nett loss in population between the middle of 1935 and the middle of 1936 has been estimated by the Department of Local Government and Public Health at 8,886. The decrease in population, therefore, can explain only part of the decline in the number of persons registered at the local labour offices, especially when it is borne in mind that at the present time a large number of the emigrants are females, while males predominated in the decline in the live register. It is also to be remembered that in the inter-censal period between 1926 and 1936, the male population of the Saorstát recorded a decrease of 6,221 in urban districts, county boroughs and the Borough of Dun Laoghaire, in the number registered at local labour offices as unemployed. That is more noteworthy owing to increasing population, which the Census in those districts has shown.
During the course of the discussion last year reference was made to the decline which had appeared in the total number of vacancies notified to and filled through the employment exchanges. I explained at the time that that was due to certain administrative changes made necessary by the bringing into operation of the Unemployment Assistance Act. During the period when that Act was first being brought into operation, it was necessary to relieve the officers in the local branches of my Department of duties in connection with the filling of vacancies which they otherwise would have filled. Consequently, there was a decline shown in the statistics of such vacancies. In October, 1935, the local officers resumed their work of supplying labour and filling vacancies notified to them, with the result that there was a very substantial increase in the number of vacancies notified and filled. A substantial part of that increase was due to the operation of the relief schemes, the workers for which are recruited through the employment exchanges. It is noteworthy that the number of vacancies notified by private employers and filled through the exchanges was also considerable, amounting on the average to about 2,000 per month.
A number of other matters dealing with the administration of the Unemployment Assistance Act were raised during the discussion last year and during the course of the year, but, as most of them have been satisfactorily adjusted since in one way or the other, it is hardly necessary for me to refer to them at this stage.
Deputy Flynn yesterday made special reference, during the discussion on the main Estimate, to the position of fishermen under the Unemployment Assistance Act. That matter has been discussed here before and the position was explained to the House. The explanation, no doubt, appears on the records of the House, and I think it is not necessary for me to go into any further discussion of the matter now, unless Deputies so desire, in which case I will, if necessary, be prepared to repeat what I said previously in that regard.
