The introduction of a second Central Fund Bill in one session is not unusual. It arises this year, as before, owing to the fact that the Dáil was not able to discuss in detail all the Estimates for Supply. The Seanad will recollect, I think, that on a previous occasion it was necessary for them to take a Vote on Account of £7,323,900 to provide the Government with a sufficient supply to carry on the Public Services, approximately, to the end of this month. The new Vote on Account is for £7,864,470 and it was required to defray the expenditure from 1st August until 30th November. The total Estimates for the year 1932-33 amounted to £21,969,623. With this second Central Fund Bill there will have been voted £15,188,370. As I explained on a former occasion, Central Fund Bills are based on the Estimates for Supply of our predecessors in office, with a few minor alterations which in pursuance of the general social policy the Government feels itself called upon to make.
In the provision now being made there will be included a sum of approximately £250,000 required to finance the extension of the Old Age Pensions Acts and an additional £20,000 will be required under the new Wounds and Disability Pensions Bill which the Minister for Defence proposes to introduce in the Dáil during the new Session. With those exceptions and with the exception of a few minor items, such as a grant of £1,000 to the Irish Olympic Council, a loan of £1,000 to the Tailteann Games Committee and the Supplementary Estimate which was introduced in order to provide the necessary staff to operate the Butter Stabilisation Act and a sum of £520 which the Minister for Education has asked for to commence the publication of a series of local histories, no significant change has been made in the Services. In that connection, I should like to say that we have not been able to make that detailed examination of the expenditure which we thought we should have been able to make when we first took office. That, I think, it will be admitted has not been the fault of the Government. The time of the Executive Council has been fully occupied with the important constitutional changes which, in pursuance of its mandate, it has endeavoured to make. In addition to that, in order to give effect to its industrial policy, a number of far-reaching measures have been submitted to the Dáil, have been passed by that House, and, I understand, are now before the Seanad for consideration. We hope, now that the Dáil has adjourned, when the Seanad has dealt with the business which the Government is submitting to it, and affords us the opportunity of an early adjournment, that we shall be able to consider with greater care and more exactitude the administrative changes which we believe can be made in order that the expenditure, with which we are all concerned, and in which we are all interested, may be considerably reduced.
