Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 8 Feb 1945

Vol. 95 No. 18

Committee on Finance. - Vote 45—Office of the Minister for Education.

An tAire Oideachais (Tomás O Deirg)

Tairgim:—

Go ndeontar suim breise ná raghaidh thar £3,700 chun foctha an mhuirir a thiocfas chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31ú lá de Mhárta, 1945, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Oideachais.

That a supplementary sum not exceeding £3,700 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1945, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Education.

Tá suim eile de £4,000 ag teastáil le haghaidh costas taistil Chigirí agus Timirí. Gan trácht ar an ardú i gcostas híreála carr, chuir an feabhas i gcúrsaí taistil ar chumas oifigeach dul ó áit go háit níos réidhe ná mar bhíothas ag súil leis. De bhrí gur líonadh postaí a bhí folamh, cuid acu le fada, is áirde uimhir na n-oifigoach atá i dteideal na gcostas seo ná mar bhí i dtús na bliana.

De bharr ardú céime agus de bharr dáilithe oifigeach nua, b'éigin uimhir mhór thar ghnáth d'aistrithe ó ionad go céile a dhéanamh: tugtar costais aistrithe d'oifigigh a aistrítear mar sin.

Tá suim de £300 atá dá sábháil ar fholúntais gan líonadh i bhfoirinn oifige mo Roinne dá cur in aghaidh coda den bhreis seo. Dá réir sin, £3,700 an méid glan atá ag teastáil.

Dr. O'Higgins

Perhaps it would be wiser if I kept my protest against what would appear to be slack estimating for this particular Supplementary Estimate. Here we have an error in the Estimate of an old established Department under the heading of "Travelling and Incidental Expenses", amounting to nearly 25 per cent. One could understand, with new State Department, with new activities, or with an inexperienced Department, an error of 5 per cent. or 10 per cent., but an error amounting practically to one quarter of the total expenditure definitely shows a degree of casual attention to figures presented to this House and incorporated in the Book of Estimates. Any private person, or any local official if it comes to that, has got to be able to make a firm estimate of expenditure at the beginning of the year, get the money to meet it, and, if it is exceeded, go without it and be out of pocket. I do not know that a Government Department would tolerate from a local body down the country the kind of slackness we are asked to tolerate. If various bodies operating under the Minister were to present their figures on a margin of error amounting to 25 per cent. in a comparatively small figure for fixed routine duties, some people would probably lose their appointments. It may be because this House is and has been over-tolerant and over-generous in a casual kind of manner on matters such as this, where there should not be mistakes, that on this Supplementary Estimate we can get a reasonable explanation, and that unforeseen circumstances have forced the Minister to give not comparatively small sums, but a big sum. Here, for "Incidental and Travelling Expenses", we are asked for approximately 22 per cent. or 23 per cent. more than the Departmental figures that were placed before us. Having protested in that manner, I hope there will be a more accurate and a more energetic estimation within the Minister's Department in the future.

Mr. Derrig

I am sure the Deputy realises that, so far as outdoor officers of Government Departments, such as school inspectors and Land Commission inspectors, are concerned, their activities were seriously curtailed owing to the emergency restrictions on transport. During the present year the position has been that there has been some improvement in such facilities and an increase in the cost of hirage of cars. School inspectors have a very large amount of travelling to do, and I think it is quite possible that they had arrears of work to attend to, and when it is considered that the ordinary national school inspector has about 120 schools to look after. As he is expected to make a visit of shorter or longer duration to practically every school in his district he has not very much time to spare. In any event, apart from the fact that there were greater facilities available last year than the present year, and that the inspectors were able to travel more, and to engage hackney cars to a greater extent than previously, it also happened that we had a somewhat larger number of officers on outdoor work than at the beginning of the year, owing to the filling of vacancies, some of which were of long standing. We have also for the first time since the war carried out periodic changes in the inspectors and have transferred a fairly substantial number from centres in which they were engaged for the past five years or longer. We decided to make the change because circumstances had sufficiently ameliorated to enable us to carry out transfers which, I considered, were overdue, and which would have been carried out perhaps some years ago were it not for the emergency. These were the circumstances that gave rise to the increase. This is a branch of the public service in which there is a great deal of travelling. It is possible that if the Government had not decided substantially to increase the remuneration of civil servants by altering the cost-of-living figure upon which the bonus and the cost of living is based, thereby throwing heavy additional burdens on sub-heads in the Vote dealing with salaries and expenses, it might have been possible to account for the additional expenditure on travelling by savings under the sub-heads for salaries, but owing to the increase in the cost-of-living bonus during the period, the provision made for salaries has been totally absorbed. There was no room for the transfer of savings to the sub-heads for travelling and therefore I was compelled to bring in this Supplementary Estimate.

Dr. O'Higgins

Surely the Minister should be able to estimate sufficiently correctly not to bank on a big saving out of such a sub-head. To balance the sub-head for travelling by a transfer from the salary sub-head would scarcely justify a piece of slack estimation.

Vote put and agreed to.