Vol. 176 No. 11
I move:
That a sum not exceeding £3,642,000 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1960, for the increase of the Grant to Local Authorities in Relief of Rates on Agricultural Land (No. 35 of 1925; No. 28 of 1931; No. 23 of 1939; No. 36 of 1946; No. 36 of 1953; and No. 18 of 1956; etc.).
This is decreased by £100,000, is that not so?
Roughly, I think that is the figure.
Exactly, I think. Is it not decreased by £100,000 because of the fact that the number in employment on the land has decreased since Fianna Fáil came into office? As far as I can understand, that is the reason it is down £100,000, that it is entirely due to a decrease in the employment allowances and, therefore, in the number employed on the land. It must be that and I shall tell the Minister why.
If that is the explanation, there are only five fewer employed.
Only what?
It is down by £100,000. The Minister really should read his Estimates. After all, he has the responsibility and he should have signed the Estimate when it came up. It is £100,000. It would mean 5,000 people, if that was the reason for it, fewer in employment. At that rate, it would be about that figure. But it is more than that, as it is a much bigger decrease in respect of employment, because there has been an increase in the rate and, therefore, an increase on the supplemental, excluding the employment.
We really have a position now where the Minister comes in and does not offer to the House any explanation of the extraordinary manner in which he has gone back on every promise that he and his colleagues in the present Government made during the election, about employment. He comes in now and introduces an Estimate showing that his promise has been repudiated and broken; and he does not offer even a word of apology to the people.
There were to be 100,000 jobs.
He said there were only five.
He thought it was £100.
What is the figure ? Are there five fewer? The Minister said five people fewer were employed.
I was just answering the Deputy's opening sentence when I said that.
What is the correct figure? Is it 5,000?
It does not matter about the correct figure. The correct figures regarding employment in agriculture, if they were given for the Coalition period and the Fianna Fáil period, should be enlightening to the Deputies.
There are 32,000 fewer employed, on your own figures.
Would the Deputy ask he question—and I will answer it n Question Time—for each year over he last 10 years?
It is given in the Economic Statistics.
Well, read them and tudy them.
I have. It shows 2,000 fewer.
