asked the Taoiseach if he will state, in view of the serious state of unemployment in the City of Dublin, if the Government proposes to take any action either by issuing increased grants to the Dublin Corporation or otherwise to relieve the present critical situation.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment in Dublin.
The Government have been, and are, giving unremitting attention to the position regarding unemployment in Dublin, as well as elsewhere. Everything possible is being done to expedite the commencement of further building and other constructional works the capital for which is found entirely or to a large extent by the State. The total estimated cost of such works (excluding housing) at present in progress in the Dublin area is over £17,000,000. Of this amount, almost one-half represents work which remains to be carried out, and this will be pressed forward as rapidly as possible. As I mentioned in my speech of the 30th June, proposing a vote of confidence in the Government, there is, in addition, a programme of work estimated to cost about £1,750,000 which will be undertaken shortly in the Dublin area.
In my reply to a question on the 21st of May last, I gave some particulars of the immediate programme of Dublin Corporation housing, to the cost ofwhich the State makes large contributions. The number employed on the corporation's housing schemes is now greater by 36 per cent. than it was three months ago, and the corporation anticipates a further increase within the next few months.
This year, the decline from the peak figures of January in the numbers on the live register at the Dublin Employment Exchanges is greater by about 900 than the corresponding decline in either of the two preceding years. The progressive downward tendency in the number on the register at those exchanges, to which I referred in reply to a question on the 9th June, has continued without interruption.
With regard to urban employment schemes with which the Special Employment Schemes Office is concerned, arrangements are being made to have the programme for the year ending the 31st March next put into operation as soon as possible—in advance of the usual time—in Dublin and in some of the other principal centres of population, it being understood that, should this necessitate the provision of additional schemes for the coming winter and spring period, a Supplementary Estimate will be taken to provide additional funds.