Dissatisfaction was was created by this order in more ways than one. The subject matter of the order itself caused dissatisfaction and unrest, and even unhappiness, in many homes. The order was circulated in an unsatisfactory manner and parts of it were rescinded in an equally unsatisfactory manner. The public had been led to believe that this order, was a mistake and the blame appeared to be attributed to some civil servants. That is regrettable because in a survey carried out recently the Irish come next to the Mexicans in their mistrust of civil servants.
Civil servants are a body of officials who have served this country well all down the years, under different Governments, and they have given complete satisfaction. Sometimes they are accused of being too much tied up in red tape and of taking a long time to say "yes" or "no". Some are accused of being advanced in the art of saying neither "yes" nor "no". However, they are people of integrity and I believe that they are entitled to the respect of the people and of Members of the Oireachtas. It is to be regretted when it is implied by a Minister that some civil servant bungled somewhere and that an order was circulated which it had never been intended to circulate.
As some speakers before me pointed out, by consulting the Book of Estimates, one may find proof that it was intended to circulate the order. I see where the amount of money allocated to this branch of social assistance was reduced and that must indicate that the Government intended to make a reduction. The circular to the employment exchanges stated:
The Order differs from past Orders in the fact that it will apply to all areas of the country, urban and rural, without exception.
When that is underlined, as it was underlined in the circular to the employment exchanges, we can take it for granted that it was the declared intention of the Government to introduce an order of that kind. It was, therefore, wrong and unjust to lead people to think that some civil servant made a serious blunder, because that might lead people to believe that civil servants are incompetent. It might even lead them to believe that civil servants at times take the liberty of circulating documents without the approval of the Minister of the Department. It might also lead them to believe that a civil servant of sharp practice might place a circular on his Minister's desk at a time when he knew the number of circulars to be signed was so great that the Minister would not have time to read them all. It would be wrong to lead people to believe that our civil servants could be capable of such mis-behaviour. The terms of the circular and the figures in the Book of Estimates point clearly to one factor alone: the blame lies with the Government.
I should like the Minister to explain the reason for the great urgency and why this announcement had to be made on 1st April, and to come into effect 14 days later. The Minister is on record as having said that the problem of the dole is a major one and has to be tackled.
The Minister also said in the Dáil, on 24th April, that the whole system of unemployment assistance, commonly known as "the dole", will be the subject of examination in the near future. We must face the fact that we are paying money to people who do not fully qualify in accordance with the regulations laid down. The Minister said that the whole system of unemployment assistance, commonly known as the dole, will be the subject of examination in the near future. If this system of unemployment assistance will be the subject of examination in the near future, would not one expect that, for the sake of the £1 million or so involved, the Government could have continued to pay it, and not just suddenly announce on 1st April that as from 14th April to 17th November it will not be available for people in towns or in the country? This was later amended to certain classes of people in the country but, nevertheless, there was a great urgency in making an order, the subject matter of which the Minister has stated must be the subject of examination in the near future. I believe the honourable and the decent way to do it would be to continue to pay the money to these unfortunate people until this examination has been carried out and until an alternative system of helping these people is developed.
The Minister then went on to say that anybody who suffers hardship as a result of this order would be covered by a scheme which would be announced shortly. Would the Minister not agree that the order made or announced the first day would cause a great deal of annoyance to a large number of people, the very class of people who are not equipped to deal with it? Would it not have been a great thing to announce that simultaneously with the changes in the payment of this assistance money, another order would be announced which would help people who might suffer hardship as a result of the first order? This would have been the Christian and humane way to do it.
It was unfortunate that the order was made at a time when there were over 70,000 unemployed people in the country and 25,000-odd on unemployment assistance. I should like to ask whether this scheme which the Minister announced to help people who might suffer hardship has got under way. If it has got under way, how many of these people who are being deprived of the dole are now in gainful employment as a result of the scheme that was introduced or said to be introduced to ameliorate the position? From observations in the other House, it is plain to be seen that the Minister is obviously worried about abuses of the dole and that he thinks it wise to make economies in that sector. The Minister decided to economise on people who were drawing the princely sum of £3.30 or £3.60 in the week. That is like a big business concern that decides economies are necessary and rushes in to make wholesale economies on petty cash.
I am quite sure that there are people on all sides of this House and of the other House who will agree with me that there are more fertile fields for economy than the people who draw the dole. We are very often told when we are considering what salaries should be paid to Government Ministers, Members of Parliament, judges, top-class civil servants and chairman of State-sponsored bodies that we must, in fairness to them, and with due credit to their great ability and to the service they render, take into account what their counterparts are paid in Northern Ireland or in England. If we were to apply the same yardstick to people seeking assistance we would, instead of cutting off their allowances completely in certain cases, be forced to increase them very substantially.
It is greatly to be regretted, from many points of view, that the economies that are so desirable should start among that section of people who are least well able to bear them. There are rumours afloat that Ministers and perhaps Deputies and Senators, judges, top-class civil servants and company directors may soon get a substantial increase in their salaries. If that were to come about, it would help to cause a very deep-rooted mistrust among the people of this country of the motives of the people who are at the head of affairs in this State. We should make an honest effort to divide our wealth equally and not cut off allowances from the most underprivileged sections of the community while we are concurrently thinking of increasing them for the more affluent.
It has been said by way of excuse for this order that work is readily available in rural Ireland between 14th April and the 17th November. I live in rural Ireland and I should like to know what kind of work is available? What will these people do? Who will employ them? Everybody knows that many thousands of farmers are not able to pay the fixed wage that must be paid to men whom they employ. If the worker has to support himself, his wife and family he must get this fixed wage. The wage is fixed as high as it is in order to meet increases in the cost of living for which the Government are, to a large degree, responsible, because of turnover tax and so on. These farmers cannot afford to employ these workers so there is no work available.
Again, because of the fact that the production of milk is now less profitable than the production of beef, people are changing over from milk production to beef production. Some of us are old enough to remember the time when it was regarded as criminal by these who are now in Government to fatten cattle or to have bullocks about the place. The Government's policy in this regard may be wise for one aspect of our economy but it means that there is less and less employment in rural areas.
Other factors contributed to the reduction in the amount of work available in rural Ireland. These things happened over a number of years. If, for example, this Government had thought it wise to continue Section B of the Land Project much gainful employment would be available, employment that would increase the potential wealth-producing capacity of the land of this country. A tremendous amount of good work was done while Section B of the Land Project was in operation. If it were still in operation, land could be made more productive and employment would be available in rural Ireland.
The minor employment scheme, the abolition of which was slipped in almost unknown to many people, gave a good deal of employment in rural Ireland in the construction of laneways, roadways, drainage and so on. This scheme was scrapped some years ago by the present Government. The very terms of this minor employment scheme meant that it provided work in areas of congestion. A certain percentage of people had to be unemployed in every Garda district so that that area could qualify for grants under the scheme. While conditions of employment were worsening in these areas, this scheme was scrapped. The land project went, the minor employment scheme went and work for a number of people in rural Ireland went with them. This was gainful work and work that could add to our production potential.
It will be generally admitted that the tourist industry in this country is going into a bleak period. Hotels cancellations, and cancellations of self-drive cars and buses give that indication. That, too, means that since a number of these hotels are situated in rural areas the seasonal work which they give will be reduced too. I should like to make the observation: if we are going to continue to refuse to give assistance to people under 50 years of age without dependants in rural Ireland and these people cannot find work—and I know that in many cases they cannot—what are they going to do? They have only two alternatives— to go to Britain where prospects of employment are not too good, or to go into the towns. There will be a rush into the towns from rural areas and then we will be back to the situation where people are living in one room. Then you will have urban councils and corporations forced to meet the problem of overcrowding and having to provide increased housing for the influx of people from rural areas, people who are driven into towns because there would be no unemployment assistance for them if they were out of work in rural areas. That is entirely to be regretted and deplored. It will also mean that some of these people will have to receive home assistance and they will have to be assisted from the rates. Some of them may be people who are physically handicapped in various ways and they would have to get disability allowances. That, in turn, will increase the burden on the rates.
What I have said about conditions in rural Ireland does not mean that there is no work potential there. There is work for thousands of people in rural areas on drainage work, such as arterial drainage of rivers and so on. The Government have given no indication whatsoever that they intend to go ahead with that work in the near future. There is no indication in the Budget of vast sums of money being made available to undertake this arterial drainage or land reclamation work which would provide employment in rural areas. It was time enough to make an alteration in the payment of unemployment assistance when schemes of some magnitude had already got under way.
I do not want to introduce anything of a bitter note in this, but I will say, like other speakers, that there is at least one good point in all this bungling and that is that it will forever put an end to Fianna Fáil propagandists going around the country before elections doing their utmost to hammer into the minds of people that if the Fianna Fáil Government are put out of office old age pensioners and social welfare classes and home assistance classes will go to the wall. That is what goes on. They try to make people believe that only one section of the Irish people and only one party in this country subscribe to the teaching of John the Baptist, that if you have two coats you should give to the man who has none at all. Their effort is to convince the people of this country that that doctrine was handed over from John the Baptist to Fianna Fáil and that they, and they alone, practise it. In that way the order will do this much good. It will prevent these people from being intimidated and being led astray. Now that we have seen what happened on the dole, we can hope for the day when we will have a more objective examination on the part of people of the policies put before them by various candidates seeking election.