asked the Minister for Social Welfare the amount of family allowances paid in respect of the first, second, third, and subsequent children in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark and the United Kingdom.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Family Allowances.
29.
The information sought by the Deputy will be found in two publications which are available in the Oireachtas Library. I quoted the titles of these in a reply to a question by Deputy Dr. O'Connell on 2nd November last.
The Minister prefers not to give the figures? He does not wish to embarrass himself by doing so?
No, not really. If I did have my Department extract all the figures, four or five pages, I could only circulate them with the Official Report. The Deputy can as easily extract them since these volumes are available and there is quite a lot of information in them.
What is the title?
"Social Security Programmes Throughout the World."
Are they in the Library?
They are.
Would the Minister agree that the difference between our family allowances and those of some of the countries like France and Italy, is of the order of between six to one and ten to one in some cases?
I shall not be dragged into making comparisons——
Because they are unfavourable?
——because in many countries they have a system whereby they can add an extra 50 per cent if there are any special circumstances.
Not a bad system, is it?
Not bad at all.
Would the Minister think of introducing it?
Perhaps we shall have a very serious look at it one of these days.
Some time in the seventies, eighties or nineties.
I hope we do better than was done in some of the fifties.
What about the unemployment?
(Interruptions.)
The Taoiseach admitted this morning in a single phrase that unemployment is at a record level since the war.
No, he did not. He talked about emigration—does the Deputy remember that?
(Interruptions.)