Vol. 295 No. 6
I move:
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £8,700,000 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of December, 1976, for the salaries and expenses of the Office of the Minister for Social Welfare, for certain services administered by that Office, for payments to the Social Insurance Fund, and for sundry grants.
This Supplementary Estimate is required to meet increased expenditure on all three sections of the Social Welfare Vote for the current year. Under the section for administration—subheads A to D—the additional expenditure amounts to £878,000. For social insurance—subheads E and F— the supplementary provision is £1,109,000, while the extra amount required for social assistance—subheads G to L—is £7,181,000, making a gross total of £9,168,000. There is, however, an increase of £468,000 in receipts from appropriations-in-aid— subhead M—which falls to be deducted from the gross total thus reducing the additional requirement on the Vote to £8,700,000.
The additional £878,000 required to meet the increased cost of administration includes arrears of £1,000,000 due to the Department of Posts and Telegraphs in respect of payment for postal services provided for my Department in 1974 and 1975, and £250,000 to meet increases under the 17th round wage agreement. These increases are offset by savings on staff costs generally and on overtime, medical certification and computer services.
The sum of £1,109,000 required for social insurance is the additional amount payable by the Exchequer to the Social Insurance Fund to meet the deficit on the workings of the fund. The cost of the general increases in the rates of benefit granted in April last and increases in long-term benefits and pensions in October, together with other improvements in social insurance schemes during the past year is £21,427,000. In addition, however, an increase in the number of claims to benefit resulted in additional expenditure of £3,637,000 bringing the total additional expenditure out of the fund to £25,064,000. The main items of increased expenditure due to improved rates of benefit and other improvements in social insurance schemes are £6,845,000 for unemployment benefit, £3,755,000 for old age contributory pensions, £3,400,000 for widows' and orphans' pensions and £1,730,000 for retirement pensions. In this connection Deputies will recollect that the duration of unemployment benefit was extended by three months to 15 months as from April last while at the same time the duration of pay-related benefit was similarly extended by three months. The cost of these extensions this year is estimated at £3,500,000 for unemployment benefit and £1,000,000 for pay-related benefit.
On the income side there has been an increase of £22,200,000 in receipts from contributions payable by employers and employees while increased income from investments, and by way of transfers from other countries under reciprocal agreements, amount to £87,000, making a total of £22,287,000. After making allowance for the sum of £1,668,000 which was overdrawn from the Exchequer at the 31st December, 1975, the additional amount payable by the Exchequer this year to the Social Insurance Fund is £1,109,000.
The bulk of the additional expenditure required in the Supplementary Estimate relates to social assistance and amounts to £7,181,000. This additional expenditure has arisen mainly from the increases in assistance payments, including non-contributory pensions, granted in April and October, 1976, at a total cost of £9,247,000. This amount is, however, offset by savings of £365,000 on old age non-contributory pensions, £500,000 on children's allowances, £238,000 on widows' and orphans' non-contributory pensions, £759,000 on miscellaneous grants and £204,000 on social assistance allowances, totalling £2,066,000.
The increase of £468,000 in appropriations-in-aid, arises mainly from increased administration costs on the social insurance and occupational injuries schemes which have to be refunded from the Social Insurance and Occupational Injuries Funds.
On the basis that I have only two minutes to reply on this Supplementary Estimate for a sum of £8,700,000, it would be somewhat of a charade for me to engage in a disputation—of course I reserve my right to speak of these additional expenses on another occasion: There is also the consideration that there is an additional Estimate to be introduced. I have just one question to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Social Welfare. I notice that under the heading of social assistance he is seeking approximately £9,500,000 extra. The Social Welfare (Supplementary Welfare Allowances) Act was passed by this House in an unseemly hurry in the middle of this year and can the Parliamentary Secretary tell us when that Act will become effective? As we know, this Act was brought in to abandon the social assistance scheme——
Does the Deputy want me to reply to that?
I would be anxious, in view of the amount being sought under the heading of social assistance. In reply to a Parliamentary question from me the Parliamentary Secretary said there was some difficulty.
I can bring the Deputy up to date.
I would appreciate it if the Parliamentary Secretary would. I am limited by the clock.
I fail to understand the Deputy's reference to unseemly haste.
The Social Welfare (Supplementary Welfare Allowance) Act was brought in urgently at that time.
But not with unseemly haste. There was ample time given for discussion, and in fact there was no limitation on the debate.
With regard to its introduction, as I told the Deputy some weeks ago, we have been most anxious that this scheme come into operation as soon as possible. There is no question but that both sides of the House desired the introduction of it. However, it is necessary that the goodwill of the people administering the scheme be ensured in the transition from the home assistance scheme to the new supplementary allowance scheme.
Considerable progress has been made regarding the recommendations of the working party in so far as it was accepted by the Minister in total one week after it was finalised by the working party which consisted of officials of the Department of Health, the Department of Social Welfare and the organisations which cater for workers. Other negotiations are in progress in connection with the conditions of employment but they do not come under the auspices of the Department of Social Welfare. I am most anxious that as soon as possible——
How soon is that?
As soon as the negotiations are finalised.
This time next year?
Is the Deputy recommending that I bring in this scheme contrary to the wishes of those people?
I thought the Parliamentary Secretary would have done his ground work on this.
One can only negotiate on something that is established fact and it could not be such until the scheme had the approval of both Houses of the Oireachtas. I accept that the Deputy is as anxious as I to see the scheme implemented as soon as possible. We all recognise its desirability.
