I was induced to put down this motion by the failure of many thousands of our people to find permanent employment at decent wages, and I was aware that there were thousands existing on the borderline of starvation on inadequate allowances, allowances from national health and unemployment assistance, and the few half-crowns thrown at them by boards of assistance, with a rigidly enforced means test.
Because of failure to get that help, they and their children are suffering very grave hardships. During the year, I and members of other Parties drew the attention of the Government to the hundreds, if not thousands, of children in this city who were going around barefooted. I pressed hard to get the Government to realise the danger to the health of those children and to induce them to give them boots. To give the Government their due, they did that and I have already said: "Thank you". It was stated that people on poor law relief would get the boots free of charge. Only yesterday, I met half a dozen women in Gardiner Street, who told me that, though they were on poor law relief, they would have to pay 7/6 per pair for those boots that are called "free boots", which they could not afford to do. I think that that matter is being inquired into and, probably, something will be done. I had thought that the Government would go further, in view of the recommendations of the school attendance committees and charitable organisations, in the way of providing clothing for the children of people of moderate means or in receipt of relief or unemployment assistance. One has only to go a few yards from the Gresham Hotel to see boys and girls wearing washed-out rags that are letting in the cold and making them easy victims of tuberculosis and other diseases. Again, I should say "Thank you" if the Government would see that the children to whom they give boots would also be given free clothing or clothing at a price which their parents could afford to pay. I suggested that £100,000 should be devoted to this question of clothing and let the parents of those children pay 1/- a week and clothe them.
As I said before, the second portion of the motion asking for increases in all these benefits, so that people would not continue to suffer, was put down only as an alternative to permanent employment at remunerative wages. It is not a solution; it is only a temporary measure. The Minister made a long statement. One would think that the speech he made was one he had thought out for the Federation of Industries. He explained all the Government had done, how industries had prospered and how much increased benefits of this kind would do to injure industry.
He forced Deputy Cogan, of the Farmers' Party, to stand up and protest against the apparent effort made to show that the farmers were the only people who benefited to any considerable extent during the emergency. He made it appear that the farmers were a very prosperous community, indeed. Deputy Cogan had to rise in his place and state that that was not so. The Minister, in his reply, said:
"It is not true that the cost of living has been continuously rising for the past 18 months. From the middle of 1943, prices have been stabilised."
I made inquiries to-day and I found that, in 1943, the highest price charged for potatoes to the working people of the city was 1/10 per stone. Last week, potatoes—one of the principal foods of the working classes—were 2/6 per stone, and people had to travel long distances to get them. In that item alone there is an increase in price. Prices have not been stabilised so far as food has been concerned. The Minister said:
"If a survey of poverty was to be taken now, it would show no good results.... The idea of a social survey has been considered. I think Deputies who have spoken about it, however, do not appreciate that any such survey, to be of value, would necessarily be protracted.... To get a survey upon which we could afford to take the chance of basing future policy, there would have to be an examination of conditions over a period, and, inevitably, if that examination was to be thorough and conducted in all parts of the country, it might be years before the results could be tabulated and made available. This is the wrong time to undertake such a survey."
The Minister said that the Government thought it was desirable to have a survey but, because of its protracted nature, now was not the time to undertake it. When will the right time come? Is it after the people on small wages and inadequate allowances have suffered that the survey will take place? I think that the Government would be well advised to follow the example of the Pilgrim Trust people in England, who have taken a survey and have tabulated the details. They are getting ready now and not waiting until after the war to give the people who are in need some kind of social security and relieve them of hardship. The Minister said that the cost of living had been stabilised. Does he know that Dublin Corporation are condemning and knocking down a large number of old tenement houses which were falling in on the people and that the rents in those cases were 4/- and 5/- per week?
The remedy adopted by the corporation is to take the people out of those conditions and send them to live in cottages which are rented at 10/- and 14/- a week. Therefore, the cost of living in the case of people living in Gloucester Street, Seán McDermott Street, Longford Street, and Bridge Street, where the houses are falling down, is increased by the fact that not only are their rents doubled but that they have to pay what is the equivalent of another rent in transport charges to get to their work. I am hearing about their grievance every other day. The people cannot exist on the small wages they are in receipt of or on the unemployment benefits they receive. The Dublin T.D.s and the members of the Dublin Corporation are aware of the clamour there is amongst those people to get back from the areas to which they had been transferred to a back room in any part of the city. Due to the rents and transport charges they have to meet a number of loaves are taken off their tables. The Government have not taken that into consideration. I am not finding fault with the Government, but I am asking that they should go ahead with their survey so that something may be done to relieve those people from the burdens they are bearing. At present they are not able to buy the necessaries of life. They are existing on the absolute minimum to keep them alive. Those engaged in the hospitals examining patients will tell one that malnutrition is the cause of half the disease and trouble that we have in this city.
I would ask the Government to continue the good work they started last Christmas when they decided to provide the children with footwear. I would now ask that they should be provided with clothing. The Minister should approach the board of assistance and tell them not to be giving the people half crowns or four shillings when four times these amounts are necessary to keep them in good health. Something should be done to relieve the tubercular patient in a sanatorium who is worrying himself to death thinking of his family trying to exist on a miserable allowance and afraid that the landlord will serve a notice to quit and evict his family. I can assure the Minister that such things have happened in Dublin within the last month or two. The Dublin T.D.s are aware that notices to quit have been served on people because of their failure to pay rent. They are unable to pay their rents because of the inadequate allowances they are receiving. These notices to quit have put terror into the hearts of the wives of unemployed men and of the wives of men who are in a sanatorium.
The Minister in his speech said that the Government had given consideration to this question of a survey, but because of the time it would take years would elapse before benefit would accrue from it. I suggest that the sooner a start is made on it the better. The Minister said that the Government had considered the practicability of such a social survey some time ago and had decided deliberately that it was undesirable to undertake it now. I would like to ask him, if it was thought desirable to consider the matter at all, what has broken that desire? No matter what the Minister may say the cost of living is going up. Take the position of newly-married people who buy furniture on the hire-purchase system. I have seen in the book of a young married pair where they had to pay £24 on the hire-purchase system for a small article of furniture. I saw the same article for sale at eight guineas for cash. I hope and believe that the Minister will undertake the survey at an early date, and that he will see that all these grievances are brought to an end.
Motion put and declared negatived.
