I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1964, for Vocational Education including a Grant-in-Aid.
The Supplementary Estimate is required to enable a grant of £3,000 to be made to Macra na Tuaithe to enable it to maintain and extend its activities in relation to training, directing and providing general education for the young members of the clubs founded and fostered by it. In 1958, the Kellogg Foundation, having considered the work being done by this organisation, agreed to allow a grant of £30,000 over five years from that date.
This support accordingly came to an end in May last but Macra na Tuaithe had, in anticipation of this loss of income, by that time approached industrialists throughout the country to guarantee annual subscriptions to it for a period of five years from that date. By this means they secured a guaranteed annual income of about £4,000 over the five-year period. The scope of their proposed activity over the next five-year period will however, cost more than this sum and in 1963-4 the deficit is estimated at about £3,000.
After careful consideration of a request from Macra na Tuaithe for a grant in aid of their educational activities, it was decided that a grant-in-aid of £3,000 was necessary in the present year to enable it to continue its valuable work and that the necessary authority should be sought by way of a supplementary estimate from Dáil Éireann to enable such payment to be made. The payment of a further grant-in-aid in the financial year 1964-65 is being provided for in the appropriate subhead of the Vote for Vocational Education for that year.
