Last week the only things we seemed to have to discuss in this House were transatlantic aeroplanes and greyhounds. Therefore, it is about time we had a discussion such as has been initiated here to-day by Deputy Dillon, because one of the most important problems confronting the present Government and which confronted the last Government is growing unemployment and emigration figures.
I must confess a great deal of disappointment at the introductory speech of the Minister for Finance. Whether or not he intends to treat of unemployment in a fuller way when he winds up this debate, I do not know, but in view of the fact that unemployment is such a problem I do not think it fair to the House that the Minister should in about 30 seconds introduce an Estimate for practically £250,000 —that is not so important in itself— which deals directly with the problem of unemployment.
I do not want to follow the line of the last two speakers and twit any of the Fianna Fáil Deputies or Ministers with the promises, placards and postcards for which they were responsible in the last election. I appreciate, and everybody in the country appreciates, the tremendous task the relief of unemployment is and has been, but the House and the country should know this. As far as I know this £250,000 that is referred to in this Estimate has already been spent and I know that to-morrow morning a certain newspaper will have blazoned in some part of it something to the effect that £250,000 is now being given by the Government to relieve unemployment. Such is not the case at all. As far as I know, the bulk of it has been spent, so it will not be any relief to unemployment.
I do not think it is correct, nor do I think Deputy Booth believes, that there is an improvement in the unemployment position. There is an improvement inasmuch that the figure, when compared to the same time last year, is 8,000 or 9,000 better. I do not want to say that emigration has increased in the last 12 months, because I do not think any firm figures could be produced, but at least emigration has not abated and all those workers who cannot find employment in this country and who emigrated in the last 12 months or ten months must be added to the figure we now have of 85,000 odd unemployed.
There has been a remarkable change of front by certain politicians and by certain members of local authorities. We are now told that our prosperity depends on increased production. With that we would agree but they have, in my opinion, gone a little too far. Their call seems to be addressed to the workers, but the workers have no means wherewith to increase production. It is true that here and there new methods might be introduced which would increase production but, on the whole, we cannot get increased production unless we put our unemployed to work.
It should be said that our 85,000 unemployed represent a certain type of worker. No blame to this Government, to the last Government or any Government for this fact but Deputies must agree that it is a fact, that there was a certain problem to be faced in Ireland in 1922 when the Second Dáil was elected and when the Government was formed. There was expenditure on houses, roads, hospitals, schools, bridges, Garda barracks, and the type of expenditure that is now regarded as capital expenditure. There is no doubt in the world that a large number of the workers, because they had engaged in the building of roads, schools, and so on, began to consider themselves as building workers. They assumed, and we all assumed, that they would be engaged in that type of employment for years and years to come, but that position has now changed and, in my opinion, the change has been brought about too quickly. It should have been a gradual change.
There are many people in the country who are fond of saying, and who are trying to press the point, that we could do with less houses, less road works, and that we are building too many hospitals, too many schools and too many Garda barracks, and so on. The unfortunate thing is that we cannot make that change quickly. These people have to be provided for and we have not provided for them. Workers from Dublin, Cork, Wexford who got constant employment now find themselves out of work. I can appreciate that position to some extent, but I do not appreciate the attitude of a Government or a Department of State which is reluctant to build houses under any circumstances.
Deputy Browne, my colleague from Wexford, knows that it is very difficult to get sanction from the Department of Local Government to build a cottage which is needed, I will not say badly needed, but needed. A man must be living on the roadside or in a ragged tent before you can get permission from the Department of Local Government to have a house built for him. We will have to provide money to keep these people, even on the minimum employment, on the roads, on the building of houses that are still needed, on the building of schools that are still needed, and any of that type of work which is now described as capital work.
That attitude is quite prevalent amongst some of the local government officials and among some of the county councillors. I do not think that in the past ten or 15 years employment on the roads was at such a very low ebb, at a time when, I would venture to remark, the Road Fund was at the very highest point ever. Again, let me say we are going to lose those people who have been engaged in such work as road building, house building, school building and the building of Garda barracks, if we are not prepared to provide other work for them. Industry cannot do it for them. It cannot be geared up sufficiently to absorb them. Unfortunately those engaged in capital development work are not equipped to engage in the type of industrial production which the country badly needs at present.
There is, of course, the misconception common to many people that the 85,000 who are registered as unemployed are not genuinely unemployed.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare added some strength to that misconception when he made certain statements some weeks ago. I do not intend going into that now. As far as my experience goes, there are the people who are not so fond of work and there are those who will register illegally at the employment exchange, but, by and large, and so far as the constituency which I represent is concerned, the vast majority of the registered unemployed are genuinely unemployed. As I say, something must be done in the meantime to try to keep them at home. The unfortunate thing is that when they get a taste of England, conditions being relatively so much better there in the matter of wages, they are lost to this country for ever.
One of the bad things I see about the present situation is this—and I do not say it is a situation that developed over the past 12 months, it developed over the past ten to 15 years—we are losing producers and we are also losing consumers. The fact that these thousands and thousands of workers are going to Great Britain, and some to America and Canada, means, I feel, that the home market for Irish industries is gradually being decreased, or rather depleted. Something will have to be done about that in conjunction with the provision of employment.
Again, there is that idea that relief work is no good. Relief work may not be good in that it does not produce real or direct wealth, but at least by it we are keeping people at home and people who are earning a weekly wage of £5, £6 or £7 are spending it at home. That money is being circulated and is buying, in the main, Irish manufactured goods. Over and above all that, we are keeping these Irish workers at home.
I want to conclude by repeating if I may, what I said in the first place, that I was vastly disappointed that the Minister in introducing this Estimate did not elaborate on the statements which the Taoiseach made from time to time on the alleviation of the unemployment situation. I do believe that all of us—and the Government, as they must be—are concerned about the figures of unemployment, but there is no real evidence that any impression is being made on them. There is no real evidence that the Government is scraping the barrel to provide employment. I do not know what the transatlantic airline is going to cost, or if it will cost anything, but if it will cost anything I think the money should be devoted to this Vote and if any money is to be spent on the Greyhound Industry Bill, it should be devoted to this Vote. Every single penny that can be got, should, in my opinion, be devoted to the provision of employment and let the Government or their experts work out how that money can best be employed.
One of the fatal mistakes of the Government in the past ten months— the reason for which I do not know— was the abolition of the Local Authorities (Works) Act scheme which was introduced in 1949. It was admitted by many members of the Fianna Fáil side of the House that this was a good scheme and rural Deputies, in particular, thought that it was a good scheme because it provided a great amount of employment, in conjunction with the agricultural industry, and linked up successfully with the land reclamation scheme introduced at that time and now continuing.
I would ask the Minister to consider with his colleague, the Minister for Local Government, between now and the final adoption of the Estimate, the reintroduction of that scheme. So far as some of the urban areas are concerned, and we have been talking about work that is not productive, a lot of the urban areas—and I am sure many of the members of the local authorities will agree with me—find it difficult to get schemes in which to engage what are termed relief workers. I know of examples where they have been trying to see where they can spend money to relieve unemployment and to get money back into the shops. The Minister should consider seriously reintroducing the Local Authorities (Works) Act scheme which is also very good from the point of view of unemployment, particularly in regard to the agricultural industry.
