I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £987 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1954, for the repayment to the Contingency Fund of certain Miscellaneous Advances.
The purpose of this Estimate, as the Dáil is aware, is to repay to the Contingency Fund the amount issued from it since it was last replenished this time last year. The fund was set up in 1923-24 and is annually restored to its original figure of £20,000.
The items of expenditure which necessitated this year's Vote are shown on the face of the Estimate. Item (4)— Centenarians' Bounty—appears for the first time in the Estimate for Repayments to the Contingency Fund. It relates to the payment of a bounty of £5 per person to those of our citizens who attain the age of 100 years and whose circumstances would seem to make such a small present acceptable.
Estimate agreed to.