During my 17 or 18 years experience in this House I cannot recollect any previous occasion when the Estimates for Government Departments were passed in such a short time. I am sure the Government will recognise that that is due to the fact that in the present delicate international situation consideration of a kind never before extended to any Government here has been given. I am sure the Government will recognise that the adoption of these Estimates in such a short time will make it possible for Ministers to give more attention to the work of their Departments than they have been able to give in other years. The necessity for giving more personal attention to departmental adminstration is apparent, and I hope the time saved in connection with the Estimates will give Ministers an opportunity to deal with the present problems that must be dealt with, apart from those connected with the international situation.
The internal position of this country is not satisfactory, and I am sure the Taoiseach will not say it is. The official figures would not enable him to say that the position, from the point of view of employment or unemployment, is better this year than it was last year, or two or three years ago. The discussion of the Estimates is the only opportunity members of Opposition Parties get to raise grievances which have not been dealt with in the ordinary departmental way. I have raised matters here which I could not get settled through the medium of correspondence. I hardly ever raise a matter here that I have not previously put to a Department in the course of correspondence.
There is a genuine need for the speeding up of the administration of several Government Departments. We have two or three thousand more civil servants at our disposal for that purpose than we had ten or 12 years ago. I hope the facility given by Opposition Deputies here in enabling the discussions on the Estimates to be completed in such a short time will be properly appreciated by the Government and that representations made by Opposition Deputies will be more closely attended to and dealt with more expeditiously than similar matters were in the past. I trust that is not an unfair request to make. I have indicated that Ministers will have more time at their disposal to deal with Government matters, and matters affecting their own Departments.
I would like to hear from the Taoiseach that the internal position of the country would be reviewed and dealt with two or three times a week by a Cabinet sub-committee. The necessity for doing so exists in my opinion. I would like to see the position in regard to unemployment, and the reactions of the international situation, looked into by certain selected members of the Cabinet. If that cannot be done, the only other way that these important matters can be dealt with is by the establishment of an economic council. I do not want to provoke a discussion on that in the short time at my disposal. For instance, I would like to feel that the financial position of this country, arising out of the passage recently of legislation in a neighbouring country, which is bound to have reactions here, was receiving the careful attention of Cabinet Ministers or departmental experts. Nobody in this House or outside of it can foresee the consequences of the present international situation, and of its reactions, from a financial point of view, on the people of this State, even though we are not actually engaged in hostilities.
We set up a Banking Commission six years ago to guide our Government on matters of internal financial policy. I hope that the recommendations in the Minority and Majority Reports of that commission will be reviewed and studied, as the situation develops. We do not know what the Government policy is arising out of the report of that Banking Commission. Other commissions have been set up here, the reports of which have been made available to the Government, or are in course of preparation. These reports have a bearing on big questions like transport and drainage, matters that are bound to have an effect on our unemployment situation. I would like to have it from the Taoiseach that the reports of these very important commissions are being studied, and that action will be taken, where action is necessary, arising out of their reactions on the international position.
There is one other matter of very serious and pressing importance that I want to refer to. It is the question of the control of the prices of the necessaries of life. I want to say that I am thoroughly dissatisfied with the failure of the Government to use the powers which they possess to control the prices of the necessaries of life. It would be far better to have this so-called Prices Commission abolished than allow it to remain in existence and carry on, as it has been carrying on, ineffectively, for some time past. The policy of the Government is to keep down the rate of wages so far as it affects their own State employees, and to use their influence to keep down wages wherever their influence can be exercised in that direction. That policy could be justified if, on the other hand, they paid as much attention to controlling the prices of the necessaries of life. Ministers, as well as members of the House who have any knowledge of the conditions that prevail in the City of Dublin, know how costly the ordinary commodities are, and what an increase in the price of them has taken place since the outbreak of war. Would any farmer Deputy, on any side of the House, get up and say that people who charge 6d. a head for cabbage in the City of Dublin are justified in doing so? I can prove that that price has been charged to poor people in the City of Dublin, while at the same time I know that the farmers in the County Dublin who produce and sell that cabbage through the Dublin market are getting less than a 1d. per head for it. That is the kind of activity that has got to be controlled in this city and through the country. Otherwise, there will be a reaction that will possibly have very serious consequences. Other commodities could be mentioned, the prices of which may not have been increased as much as the price of vegetables, and in respect of which profiteering has not been carried on to the same extent. I want an assurance from the Taoiseach that these matters, affecting the daily lives of our people, will be dealt with more effectively than they have been since the outbreak of war.
I said that there was delay in dealing with certain departmental matters which is the cause of unnecessary correspondence, so far as Deputies from all Parties are concerned. I need only quote the undue delay and the irritating way in which claims for military service pensions are being dealt with. The Taoiseach, and I quite agree with him, appealed to the people of this State to increase three-fold, if possible, the output of turf as compared with what it was last year. Does he know that the failure of the Land Commission to acquire and divide bogs is the explanation of the limited production of turf in the country? Does he know, for instance, that most of our bogs in the midland areas are owned by landlords, or bog owners, who live on the letting of turf, and that, therefore the people who are anxious to increase the production of turf for sale in our provincial towns cannot do so? They cannot do so because the Land Commission is too lazy to do its own job, or does it in such a way as to prevent the appeal made by the Taoiseach being responded to in a proper manner. I would ask the Taoiseach to look into the working of some of the Government Departments, to speed up administration, and to keep a careful and watchful eye over the internal situation in the country.
