There has been some misunderstanding about the circulation of this Vote for the Order Paper. I propose to give the House a review of the activities of the Special Employment Schemes' Office for the year that has closed. The amount made available by the Oireachtas for employment and emergency schemes in the last financial year was £1,250,000, of which a sum of £1,091,623 was expended within the financial year. To this expenditure should be added the contributions by local authorities amounting to £195,037, making a gross expenditure of £1,286,660. Details of the expenditure to 31st March, 1944, under the Vote are as follows:—Salaries, Travelling Expenses, etc., £32,970; Public Health Works,—State Grant, £45,460; Local Contribution, £71,668, Total, £117,128. Housing Sites Development—State Grant, £17,430; Local Contribution, £17,430, Total, £34,860. Road Works in Urban Areas—State Grant, £133,919; Local Contribution, £42,386; Total, £176,305. Amenity Schemes in Urban Areas—State Grant, £51,219; Local Contribution, £15,410; Total, £66,629. Rural Employment Schemes—Roads—State Grant, £183,574; Local Contribution, £42,350; Total, £225,924. Minor Employment Schemes—State Grant, £135,677, no local contribution. Bog Development Schemes—Landholders and Other private producers' bogs—State Grant, £76,925; no local contribution. Farm Improvements Scheme —State Grant, £303,824; no local contribution. Seed Distribution Scheme—State Grant, £9,517; no local contribution. Rural Improvements Scheme—State Grant, £1,330, Local Contribution, £459; Total, £1,789. Miscellaneous Works—State Grant, £33,894; Local Contribution, £5,334: Total, £39,228. The total figures work out as follows—State Grants: £1,091,623; Local Contributions, £195,037—£1,286,660.
In addition to the £1,250,000 made available under the Employment and Emergency Schemes Vote, 1943-44, a sum of £50,000 was provided in the Vote for the Department of Local Government and Public Health for a type of work, namely, the reconditioning or repair of public roads subject to heavy turf transport, which comes within the scope of the Employment and Emergency Schemes Vote, 1944/45. The expenditure on such works in 1943/44 was State, £39,988; Local, £14,050; Total, £54,038; and if this expenditure by the Department of Local Government and Public Health is added to the expenditure from the Employment and Emergency Schemes Vote the aggregate expenditure amounts to: State, £1,131,611; Local, £209,087; Total, £1,340,698.
Of the expenditure of £1,286,660 from the Employment and Emergency Schemes Vote, including contributions by local authorities, during the financial year 1943/44, approximately £374,000 was expended during the period 1st April to 30th September, and the balance of £912,660 during the winter months.
The maximum number of workmen employed at any one time during the year was: Farm Improvement Schemes 12,618; other schemes 19,229; total 31,847. The average number employed on all schemes during the period up to September was 9,002, and from October to March 18,382. Of these, approximately 40 per cent. were workmen who would otherwise have been entitled to unemployment assistance; but if the figures for Farm Improvement and Bog Development Schemes (on which the numbers of unemployment assistance recipients engaged are relatively low) be excluded, the proportion of workmen who would otherwise have been entitled to unemployment assistance would be 77 per cent. approximately.
The average period of employment given to individual workmen varies with the class of work, and in the different areas, but the total amount of employment afforded in 1943/44, apart from the Farm Improvement Scheme which is of a different order, is equivalent to work for 31,000 men each receiving part-time employment for four or five days per week, for an average of 12 weeks.
The total number of applications received for Minor Employment Schemes during the year was 3,184 and about 5,100 proposals were investigated and reported on, including proposals already partially carried out.
During the spring and summer approximately 450 minor drainage schemes were carried out at a cost of £30,800, principally for the development of bogs used by landholders for the supply of their domestic requirements of turf.
The Rural Improvements Scheme under which grants on a contributory basis are made available for works for the joint benefit of groups of two or more farmers, such as accommodation roads and small drainage schemes was introduced during the past year. The total number of effective applications received up to 31st March, 1944 was 1,503, of which 372 had at that date been investigated on the ground by inspectors and reported on. Grants totalling £8,174 were sanctioned in the year under review for 45 schemes estimated to cost £10,992, the balance of £2,818 represents the total of the amounts contributed by the applicants.
It should be stated, for the information of the Dáil, that this first period, from the introduction of the scheme to the end of the financial year, has been mainly one of preparation, recruitment of staff and the laying down of procedure. The scheme did not lend itself to immediate application on a wide scale. It involves in effect the making of a contract with the applicants in each approved case to expend a specified amount, partly provided by the State and partly by the applicants, on some agreed work; and the applicants in view of the fact that they pay part of the cost, naturally take a very keen interest in the execution of the work and in the results achieved. Consequently, in order to avoid subsequent disputes it was essential that a careful specification and estimate should be made in each case and that the offers of grants should be very clearly set out and that any circumstances peculiar to an individual case should always be noted. It was also necessary to have a very definite understanding with county surveyors, who have undertaken to carry out the works, to ensure that they would, as our agents, fully discharge our obligation to the applicants.
Accordingly, in the initial stages stress was laid rather on laying the ground work properly than on issuing offers hastily, in the expectation that any time lost would be amply recovered later in the smooth operation of a carefully planned system; and it may be some measure of our success in this regard that in no case completed to date has any difficulty arisen with the applicants, while in many instances they have expressed satisfaction with the results. Some delay was also occasioned by the difficulty in recruiting the required technical staff, and also by the travelling difficulties occasioned by the present emergency.
It may be expected that, with the difficult preliminary stage now safely over, good progress will be made, and that a very considerable number of cases will be dealt with in the current year: but this again depends on the willingness of applicants to pay the contributions required of them.
From the figures which I gave at the outset it may be seen that the expenditure against State grant was £158,377 less than the sum provided by the Oireachtas. On the other hand the expenditure against local contribution was £15,037 more than anticipated. The increase under the heading of local contribution was due mainly to a higher proportion than was anticipated of schemes having a comparatively high rate of local contribution being carried out.
In regard to the under expenditure in respect of voted moneys the position generally is that it is very difficult to achieve within the financial year the expenditure of the precise amount voted. Each year's programme of relief works consists of a large number of separate schemes of which a very considerable proportion are undertaken by the various local authorities throughout the country, and the period of execution of the schemes is limited as far as possible to the winter months when the need for employment. is relatively greatest. Every effort is made, by watching the returns of expenditure submitted periodically by the various bodies in charge of the works, to regulate the progress of expenditure but in the circumstances as already explained complete success in this regard is not to be expected.
Added to these general causes there was also the circumstance that last year there was a further decline in the number of unemployment assistance recipients throughout the country, with the result that in some cases it was difficult to obtain sufficiently large gangs to permit of schemes being carried out at all, while in others the gangs were smaller than expected and the rate of progress correspondingly slower.
Further causes operating to reduce expenditure were: the difficulties already referred to of getting the Rural Improvements Scheme under way, and the failure of farmers in certain cases under the Farm Improvements Scheme to complete works for which grants would normally have become payable during the year of account, owing mainly to the increased demands made on the available labour force by the emergency food and fuel production programme.
The estimate of the amount required in the year ending 31st March, 1945, for employment and emergency schemes is £1,250,000, made up as follows:— continuation of schemes sanctioned prior to 31st March, 1944 (re-vote), £660,000; miscellaneous new schemes, £590,000. To the amount of the Vote must be added contributions estimated at £206,000 expected from local authorities, and from beneficiaries under the Rural Improvements Scheme. This gives a total sum of £1,456,000, available for expenditure within the financial year 1944-45; and to enable this expenditure to be achieved as far as possible within the time limit, it is proposed to authorise schemes to the extent of £665,000 (State grant) in excess of the amount of the Vote. This sum together with a proportionate amount for local contributions will be carried forward at the 31st March, 1945, to form part of the ensuing year's programme.
In this regard it is desirable to remind the Dáil that a large portion of each year's Vote is allocated to local authorities, and the expenditure of the full amount of the provision depends largely on the acceptance of the grants on the terms offered, and on the prompt submission of schemes by the local authorities.
Subject to the foregoing remarks, the following table sets forth for each class of work the proposed expenditure in the year 1944-45:—
Schemes administered by:
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|
|
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Department of Local Government and Public Health.
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Estimated Expenditure
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State
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Local
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Total
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|
£
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£
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£
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CLASS OF WORK.
|
|
|
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Public Health Works
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45,000
|
67,500
|
112,500
|
Housing Site Development
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10,000
|
10,000
|
20,000
|
Urban Schemes—Amenity and Roads
|
185,000
|
42,550
|
227,550
|
Rural Schemes—Amenity and Roads
|
160,000
|
39,625
|
199,625
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Reconditioning or Repair of Public Roads subject to heavy Turf Transport
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80,000
|
27,000
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107,000
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Department of Agriculture
|
|
|
|
Farm Improvements Scheme
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350,000
|
—
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350,000
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Seed Distribution Scheme
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75,000
|
—
|
75,000
|
Lime Distribution Scheme
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20,000
|
—
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20,000
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Special Employment Schemes Office.
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|
|
|
Minor Employment Schemes
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110,000
|
—
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110,000
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Bog Development Schemes
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70,000
|
—
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70,000
|
Rural Improvements Scheme
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90,000
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18,000
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108,000
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Miscellaneous Schemes:
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|
|
|
Miscellaneous Schemes of an emergency character or for the relief of unemployment and distress
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17,564
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1,325
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18,889
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Total Expenditure on Schemes
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1,212,564
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206,000
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1,418,564
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Add Subheads A-E.(Salaries, etc.)
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37,436
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—
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37,436
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Total Expenditure from Vote
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1,250,000
|
206,000
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1,456,000
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Between January, 1943, and January, 1944, the total number of men in receipt of unemployment assistance fell by about 11.7 per cent. The principal reduction occurred in the rural areas, but even in the urban districts there was a substantial decline in the figures.
In view of the reduction in the number of unemployed, smaller provision has been made under sub-heads F, G and H for employment schemes in rural and urban areas, and the provision under sub-head O for Miscellaneous Schemes has been reduced.
As a partial offset to these reductions, it has been found advisable to make increased provision under sub-head L (Seed Distribution Scheme) and sub-head I (Bog Development Schemes); and provision has been made under sub-head J for schemes for the reconditioning or repair of public roads subject to heavy turf traffic which, in the previous year, were provided for in the Vote for the Department of Local Government and Public Health. Taking the Vote as a whole, there is a reduction of £50,000 as compared with the provision for corresponding services last year.
Most Deputies are aware of the principles underlying the allocations of grants under the Vote, and it is scarcely necessary for me to refer to them now. As in previous years, we shall rely mainly on the various local authorities—county councils, urban councils, etc.—to provide the works needed to make up the employment schemes programme. Excepting minor employment schemes, this is the only source from which we can obtain proposals of definite public utility and high unskilled labour content in sufficient number to provide the required amount of employment during the winter months.
We shall, however, always welcome proposals from any source which seem likely to satisfy the essential requirements of public utility, high unskilled labour content and proximity to the places of residence of unemployed persons.
The emergency services provided for in the Vote—sub-heads J, K, L, M, I and N—are directed towards the facilitating and encouragement of food and turf production, and will be used accordingly. In addition, the moneys provided under the other sub-heads for purely employment schemes in rural areas will, as far as is consistent with their primary purpose of providing employment in necessitous areas, be used to further the same ends.