I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £1,581,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1957, for payments to the Social Insurance Fund (No. 14 of 1950 and No. 11 of 1952).
The Supplementary Estimate is in respect of the Vote for Social Insurance, No. 61, in the Book of Estimates. It is for the sum of £1,581,000. Deputies will remember that when the Social Welfare (Amendment) Bill, 1956, was before Dáil Éireann in June of last year, it was stated that the cost to the Exchequer of the increases in the weekly rates of insurance benefit effected by the Bill would be £500,000 per annum in a year in which the increases operated over the whole length of the year. As the increased rates were effected from the beginning of September, 1956, the additional cost to the Exchequer for 1956-57 was estimated at £300,000 and provision for that amount was made in the Budget by the Minister for Finance. The amount which it would have been necessary to provide by means of this Supplementary Estimate would there-fore have been £300,000, had it not been for the serious worsening of the unemployment position which has occurred during the present financial year. This has resulted in expenditure on unemployment benefit during that year being much higher than had been expected and it has resulted in a loss of income from contributions. As Deputies are probably aware, the Exchequer makes good to the Social Insurance Fund, under Section 39 of the Social Welfare Act of 1952, the amount by which the expenditure of the Fund exceeds its income in any year. The amount of this Supplementary Estimate is required, therefore, in order to balance the income and expenditure of the Fund for the year 1956-57. The total expenditure out of the Fund on benefits in the year in question will be about £8,880,000.
