I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £65,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1943, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, and certain services administered by that office, including grants and other expenses in connection with housing, grants to local authorities, sundry miscellaneous grants and grants-in-aid, and certain charges connected with hospitals.
This Supplementary Estimate relates to two matters. The first is the grant towards the supply of fuel for necessitous families, and the second, which is merely a token Estimate, is to enable us to implement the provisions of the Housing Act of 1942, which empowered the Government to continue the grants to be made to private builders. The most important item in the Estimate, of course, is the grant towards the cost of supplying fuel for necessitous families. The House, no doubt, will recall that, in introducing his Budget in May last, the Minister for Finance indicated that it was his intention to provide the sum of £100,000 to assist necessitous families, living in non-turf areas, to procure a supply of fuel during the coming winter.
In furtherance of that, the Government has communicated with the City and County Managers in the non-turf areas, and a general scheme has been circulated for adoption by them. Under the scheme, it is desired to do two things: first, not merely to supply fuel at specially favourable prices — and in some instances, indeed, to supply it free of any charge at all—but also to ensure that those who come within the terms of the scheme will be assured of getting a definite fuel ration over the winter. It will be recollected that, last year, certain difficulties were alleged to exist in connection with the supply of fuel to poor persons, whereby it was suggested that fuel that had been given to small distributors for sale in the poorer localities had been diverted to the richer localities and sold, more or less, in the black market. One of the aims of the scheme has been to ensure that if that occurred last year, it will not occur again. Therefore, I should like to lay emphasis on the dual purpose here, which is the ensuring of a supply of fuel to certain necessitous households at a reasonable price. The general intention, under the scheme, is that the appropriate local authority — in the case of Dublin City, the Commissioners for the Board of Assistance, and in other districts or areas, the City Managers or County Managers—will open depots—at least one depot, where one will suffice, and in the larger areas a number of depots —where the fuel will be stored, and from which it will be distributed. It is hoped—and I do not see any difficulty in this connection — that the weekly ration will allow at least one cwt. of fuel for each household. The fuel may be either turf or timber. In general, I think it will be turf, but in some areas the proposal is that it should be half turf and half timber. Where it has been customary for the public assistance authority to make a cash allowance for fuel during the winter, it has been suggested that a lump sum should be paid by way of contribution to the scheme and that the turf should be issued free to the recipients of home assistance, but that the recipients of other forms of assistance shall be expected to pay at graduated rates. For instance, for old age pensioners and widow-pensioners, the rate, I think, will be 6d. per cwt., and for heads of households, in receipt of unemployment assistance, the rate will be 1/- per cwt.
For other households, not in receipt of any form of public assistance, but with a low weekly income, the rate will be 2/- per cwt. It will be seen that these are particularly favourable rates when it is remembered that in the City of Dublin the probable average cost of supplying fuel to the city it is estimated will be in the neighbourhood of £4 per ton, and to that, of course, would have to be added the cost of distribution to the consumer.
