This is the amendment we discussed on Wednesday last, following the insertion in the Bill, by amendment on Committee Stage, of the sections which had been in it when it originally appeared but which were removed by amendment in the Dáil. As it appears that, to some extent, the amendment which was passed here was moved on a misunderstanding and that that misunderstanding has, apparently, been removed by certain discussions which took place, I assume there will be no objection to the passing of this amendment but I think it is desirable that I should give some explanation, for the information of all Senators, of the manner in which the financial provisions of the Bill will operate and the nature of the information which will be given periodically to the Oireachtas concerning it.
Section 27 of the Bill, as it passed the Dáil and as, I trust, it will pass the Seanad, applies only to payments made out of the Unemployment Fund and payments made by local authorities. The effect of it will be that the full amount required for unemployment assistance must be voted each year. The amounts received from the Unemployment Insurance Fund and from local authorities will be paid into the Exchequer, as is done in connection with a great many other services. After the Bill has become law, it will be necessary to take a Supplementary Estimate to cover the whole of the expenditure expected to arise until 31st March next. The estimated expenditure on unemployment assistance will be shown separately in the volume of Estimates each year. The expenditure will be shown in full except that it will not be possible to apportion exactly the cost of administration and the cost of certain other services such as expenditure by the Board of Works and Post Office, which will be common both to unemployment assistance and unemployment insurance. The estimated amount of receipts from local authorities and from the Unemployment Insurance Fund will be shown on the face of the Estimate each year. The expenditure incurred will be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor-General each year and the certificate of the Comptroller and Auditor-General will be found in the Appropriation Accounts for the year.
In the case of the Unemployment Insurance Fund, which was referred to in the course of the discussion, no Estimate of the total expenditure from the fund is available at the beginning of the year. A complete picture of the expenditure is not available until the account of the fund is published after the completion of the year. In that connection, it may be explained that the account of the Unemployment Fund for the year which ended 31st March, 1932, with the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General, was not available until September, 1933. The Appropriation Accounts, with the report and certificate of the Comptroller and Auditor-General on the Votes for the same financial year, were available on 1st March, 1933—that is, six months earlier than the account of the Unemployment Fund. It will be observed that the first complete picture of expenditure from the Unemployment Fund is available some 18 months after the end of the financial year; an estimate of the expenditure from a Vote is available at the beginning of the year and the audited account of expenditure is normally available much earlier than the account of expenditure from the Unemployment Fund.
The account of the fund is presented to both Houses and the matter is left at that unless somebody raises a question about it. A Vote for unemployment assistance must go before the Dáil as an Estimate and must go before both Houses in the Appropriation Bill each year. If there is any desire in any quarter to know the expenditure on unemployment assistance before the Appropriation Account is available, an undertaking can be given that an approximate figure of expenditure will be furnished, on request, to any Deputy or Senator who desires it, shortly after the 31st March. An unchecked figure can, in fact, be given in the first week of April of any year. The establishment of a fund for unemployment assistance purposes offers no advantages over a Vote, from the point of view of the Oireachtas. It entails a serious disadvantage owing to the necessity for apportioning the cost of administration between unemployment assistance and unemployment insurance, which will be administered by the same headquarters staff through the same local offices and in respect of which the same services will be rendered by the Office of Works, the Post Office, the Stationery Office and other Departments. There is not, of course, the same case for a fund for unemployment assistance as there is for unemployment insurance, as the latter fund has to be maintained more or less upon an actuarial basis.
These are the considerations which were brought to the notice of Senators interested in the original amendment and I think it is desirable they should be on record. I am assuming we will have no difficulty in securing the enactment of this amendment, the effect of which is to put the Bill back in the form in which it left the Dáil.
