asked the Minister for Finance if, in view of the serious unemployment situation at present existing, as disclosed by the recent statement of the General President of the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union, he will state what steps he proposes to take to deal with the situation and, in particular, what measures he proposes for the City of Dublin during the coming Christmas season.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Situation: Relief Measures.
Major de Valera
asked the Minister for Finance whether, in view of the mounting unemployment in the Dublin area, he will request the Dublin Corporation to prepare and put into operation, as a matter of urgency, relief schemes.
I propose to answer Questions Nos. 41 and 42 together.
As regards the general question of the measures taken by the Government to alleviate unemployment, I would refer the Deputies to the announcement made by the Government on 23rd instant as to the apportionment of the sum of £1,000,000 which is being made available for expenditure on certain projects of a public character during the remainder of the current financial year.
As regards the Dublin area, the details so announced include provision for special employment schemes in urban areas, including Dublin. Employment in the Dublin area will also be given from the additional money at the disposal of the Office of Public Works and to be made available to University College, Dublin, for site clearance at Belfield.
Dublin Corporation was requested on 24th instant to submit schemes appropriate for financing from an allocation of £100,000 for special employment schemes, which is supplementary to the sum of £206,000 available to the corporation at 1st April, 1956, from unexpended balances of earlier grants for such schemes, and to the percentage contribution which the corporation makes from its own resources towards the cost of the schemes. It rests with Dublin Corporation, in the first instance, to prepare and submit suitable schemes for execution with the moneys now available.
Major de Valera
I would like to inquire how my question, which was originally addressed to the Tánaiste as Minister for Industry and Commerce, was transferred to the Department of Finance? I cannot see from the wording of it how it came to be regarded as a Board of Works matter. My original question was addressed to the Tánaiste and asked what steps he proposed taking to deal with the unemployment situation. I find that the question was transferred to the Minister for Finance.
I do not know how it got here. All I know is that I was asked to answer it on behalf of the Minister for Finance. I think there is more to be considered in it than the protocol of procedure for disposing of it.
Major de Valera
I take it that the Government have some more comprehensive method for dealing with unemployment other than by way of relief schemes?
I am glad the Deputy asked that question for it affords me the opportunity of saying that the Government have made funds available to the Dublin Corporation for the purposes of the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Acts, and if the Deputy would go to Deputy Briscoe, Lord Mayor of Dublin, and ask him to make an announcement as to the readiness of the corporation to allocate a sufficient sum out of the £4,000,000 made available by this Government to the Dublin Corporation this year and next year for the purposes of the Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Acts, he would do more to end unemployment in the building industry in the City of Dublin than all the clatter from Fianna Fáil during the past six weeks.
Major de Valera
Does the Minister intend to imply by that that the Government are to pass the problem over to the Dublin Corporation?
No, Sir. What I mean is this: Deputy Briscoe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, has the money if he will disgorge it for the purposes for which it was given.
Major de Valera
The situation is far too serious to make it a matter for mere debating points.
Hear, hear!
Major de Valera
The Minister said to forget protocol. The simple question is: what do the Government propose to do in regard to the serious unemployment problem? I addressed a question to one Minister and it was referred to another. I get the answer to refer it to the Dublin Corporation.
No, no!
Major de Valera
That is the position.
Order!
I should like to deal with that supplementary question. I have informed the Dáil of the direct measures taken by this Government to assist in dealing with what I hope is the temporary unemployment problem in Dublin City. Over and above what I have referred to in my reply, I want to inform the Dáil that the Dublin Corporation have been provided with £4,000,000 this year and have been guaranteed £4,000,000 next year and if Deputy Briscoe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and his colleagues want to help in resolving the unemployment problem in the building industry in Dublin City, the way to do it is to declare now what allocation they are going to make out of the £4,000,000 this Government are giving the Dublin Corporation which they never before got from any Government. If Deputy Briscoe, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, and the Dublin Corporation, will announce now that they are allocating £500,000 of that £4,000,000 given to them for Small Dwellings (Acquisition) Act purposes beginning on 1st April next, they will do more to help to resolve the problem of unemployment in the building industry in this city than all the clatter of Fianna Fáil for the last two months.
Major de Valera
Is that the sum total of the Government's effort to relieve unemployment?
Order, order!
The Deputies on the other side of the House are not called to order. We had a most disorderly statement from the Minister.
That seems to be a reflection on the Chair. The Minister made a statement.
I thought it was disorderly.
Is Deputy Lemass making a charge against the Chair?
I am making it against the jackass over there.
Is that parliamentary language?
That term should be withdrawn.
If it was disorderly I will withdraw it but I think the Minister's reference to Deputy Briscoe was also disorderly and should also be withdrawn.
In what respect?
It was quite true.
A tissue of half-truths.
Order! Deputy MacBride.
In view of the delays there have been by the Dublin Corporation in regard to the housing programme and the funds available for S.D.A. applications, would the Minister not consider it advisable to make an urgent request to the corporation to submit its relief plans immediately?
The Deputy may rest assured that every step will be taken to expedite the preparation and implementation of the plans referred to in my question, but I desire to reaffirm to the Deputy that the greatest contribution Dublin Corporation could make to the present situation would be to announce to the public the fact that they have in this financial year abundant funds to finance S.D.A. applications and that in respect of next year they will make £500,000 available. It is the doubt as to whether the Dublin Corporation will make that sum available next year that is causing a great deal of the dislocation in the building trade, and I am utterly at a loss to know why they will not do it. I do not conceal from the House or from the Deputy my sense of bitter resentment that the Dublin Corporation, by its outrageous refusal to make that declaration, should throw hundreds of men into unnecessary unemployment.
The Minister knows——
It is a fact——
——it is false.
——and it is time the Deputy heard it.
Out you go.
Order!
It is a fact; go and tell the Lord Mayor.
Arising from the Minister's remarks concerning the corporation, could the Minister inform the House how many fewer men are employed on Dublin Corporation housing schemes this month as against this month last year, and whether the basic cause of this reduction in employment on all corporation housing schemes is due to the failure of the Department of Local Government to approve plans submitted by the corporation and lying in the Department for months?
With your permission, Sir, since the Minister has referred to the £1,000,000 of S.D.A. funds, is the Minister aware that the corporation has no S.D.A. funds available——
Not a bob and the Minister knows it.
——this year. The corporation were informed that £1,000,000 would be made available but that is fully committed. With regard to the second part of the Minister's remarks, repeated statements have been made by every Minister in this House——
The Deputy should frame his remarks in the form of a question.
Is the Minister aware that repeated statements have been made by Ministers in this House and outside it that the housing of the working classes should be given top priority? Therefore, does the Minister not agree that the corporation had no option but to carry on in accordance with that declared policy unless and until surplus funds were available? Is the Minister not aware that, because of the difficulties in continuing this year's projected building programme, it has been announced there will be £215,000 available for S.D.A. purposes next year and that there is a grave fear that that sum will grow to the figure mentioned by the Minister?
Hear, hear!
Is the Minister aware that that is only possible because the corporation has been unable, due to delay in obtaining sanction, to make provision for carrying out housing of the working classes in its area to the fullest extent possible?
I will allow just one reply from the Government side. The time for questions is now up.
I am aware that this year and next year this Government, for the first time in the history of this State, has made available from the Local Loans Fund to the Dublin Corporation £4,000,000 in respect of each financial year. In the previous 32 years of this State's existence such funds have never been made available to the Dublin Corporation——
They were raised from the public and you cannot do that now.
Would the Deputy keep quiet? I note with satisfaction that Deputy Larkin now says on behalf of Dublin Corporation that which I do not think was said before—that it is their intention to provide next year up to £500,000 for Small Dwellings Loans. I understand him to say that they already had £250,000 and that they feel they may raise that to £500,000——
Is it not usual for Deputies to address their remarks to the Chair or through the Chair?
That has been done. No discourtesy is intended to the Deputy by the habitual practice of Ministers turning towards the Deputy who asks the supplementary question. The announcement of Deputy Larkin that, if the applications justify the allocation of up to £500,000 for the purposes of the Small Dwellings Acts, the Corporation will make that sum available from the £4,000,000 provided by the Government, would be an immense contribution to the present situation; and I hope that declaration on behalf of the corporation will be endorsed by the Lord Mayor and all the other members of the corporation.
Major de Valera
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I would like to raise this matter on the Adjournment.
Is the Minister sure it is not the Irish Press?
No, I believe it to be the Lord Mayor, Deputy Briscoe.
Major de Valera
That is a poor suggestion——
That is the truth.
Major de Valera
——and it does not come well from the Minister.
It is not the Irish Press?
It is the truth. It started 12 months ago.
They brought down the price of cattle and the price of turkeys. Now they are stopping the building of houses.
Do not talk about bringing down the price of cattle.