I beg to move:
"That the measures hitherto adopted by the Government for the relief of unemployment are insufficient and ought to be extended immediately."
In our judgment this is the paramount issue to be faced by the Dáil. So far as we are concerned we look upon it as the most important subject and most urgent to be dealt with by this House, and we hope all parties will realise that the unemployment question is not a party one. We hope that all parties in the House will give of their best in trying to find a solution for it. With regard to unemployment and the position of this country since 1847, there has been a steady stream of emigration, the best of the young men and women of the country being forced to leave. That went on year after year, a process which weakened the country considerably, but during all those years they were forced to go there was always the hope that with the coming of self-government the tide of emigration would be stemmed. What is the position? We have had control of the national resources for over five and a half years, and I submit we have failed to utilise these resources to provide a livelihood for the citizens of this country, and as a consequence the tide of emigration has gone on just as it did before this country got self-government. While we have had Deputies talking outside about the national status, and Cumann na nGaedheal and other Deputies inside talking about national prosperity, the country was losing its richest asset, its young men and women, those to whom we would be looking to build up the prosperity of the country and to give it its proper status. I wish to deal for a few moments with the figures that were given out from time to time by the Department of Industry and Commerce. We have challenged the accuracy of those figures, and we have said that they represent only a fraction of the whole of the unemployed, for the reason that no inducement whatever was given to register, as the Department was unable to provide work for the thousands of unemployed. They were not going to avail of machinery that was of no use to them and when there were no hopes whatever of providing them with employment. Figures have been given here in this House and to the country on the unemployment debates as if they truly represented the actual number of unemployed, whereas the fact is that the figures given by the Department of Industry and Commerce represent, at the outside, not more than one-fourth of the total number of unemployed.
We have tried to urge upon the Government in this House the magnitude of this problem, and we have received very little sympathy in the matter. We have tried to make an estimate of the number of unemployed and the Government have always refused to accept our estimate. They have treated it as an exaggeration, and yet they were prepared to accept an estimate, which was very obviously inaccurate, given by the Department of Industry and Commerce. While saying that I want to be as fair as I can, and I say that the unemployment problem is not peculiar to this country and that the Government have done a good deal to try and relieve it. They have given a good deal towards relief but they have not gone far enough. If there were 20,000 unemployed and the Government were able to provide for 10,000 of them that is very little satisfaction to the other 10,000 who do not know where they are to get the next meal. That is the point that we want the House to face. I know from experience the type of argument we are going to have from the Government Benches. We will be told about the millions for the Shannon Scheme and about the Carlow Beet Factory. The President will tell us about the "X" thousands of houses that have been built since the Free State was set up, and so on. That is all very good in its own way, but what we want to know is: what is going to be done for those who were not absorbed as a result of those schemes, for the thousands that did not get employment, notwithstanding the millions of pounds that have been spent upon public works within the last five years?
With regard to the number of employed, it seems rather strange that the Department of Industry and Commerce, with all the machinery of the State at its disposal, is not able to give the actual number of unemployed persons upon any given day. But we are provided with figures, by another State Department, which throw a good deal of light on the subject. I referred very briefly here some time ago to the Prolongation of Insurance Act. We are told by one of the Departments of the State that 90,000 persons have had their health insurance prolonged. For the information of the House, I want to state that National Health Insurance Societies have the power to continue insurance to their members who are employed under certain conditions. But this is the point: they cannot give the benefit of the Prolongation Act to any member who has worked for twenty-six weeks in any year. So that here we have it from the figures given by a Government Department and there are now 90,000 persons who did not even get twenty-six weeks work in the year. It cannot be said that the Societies took on this liability very loosely, because when they decided to prolong the insurance of these members they were taking on the liability of paying them benefits. They were not going to accept that liability unless they were satisfied that they were bound to do so. I suggest that although the figure of 90,000 may not be really accurate it is certainly more accurate and nearer to the actual number of unemployed than the figure given by the Department of Industry and Commerce.
I would ask Deputies who are interested in this problem—and I hope all Deputies are interested—and who would like to see it solved, to compare what has been done for the unemployed in this country with what has been done in the North of Ireland and in Great Britain. I submit that the Government of the Free State ought not to be less humane in their treatment of the unemployed than the Government of Northern Ireland or of Great Britain. We make the claim again that it is the duty of the State to provide or to see that work is provided for its citizens who are willing and able to work, and that if the Government are not able to fulfil that duty then it is their duty to see that these workers are maintained—that they get sufficient food, clothing and shelter to keep them alive, and not only to keep them alive, but to keep their strength maintained so that when work is provided they may be able to undertake it. I know that the Government have denied that there is any responsibility on them to see that people do not die from starvation. I hope the Government have reconsidered that view, because I believe that upon reconsideration they will see it is not a right and proper attitude for any Government to take up. No Government have the right to take office or to attempt to govern unless they are prepared to do their duty towards the people. I say that a Government that allows thousands of men and women to be living on the verge of starvation has ceased to carry out its primary duty. A Government's duty is to see that every man and woman willing to work is provided with work, so that they may maintain themselves and their dependants. If the Government fail to do that, then it is their duty to see that those people do not go hungry.
There is another matter I wish to refer to, and that is that I hope we are not going to have, as we have had during similar debates in the past, any of the stale criticisms from those who call themselves business Deputies of the honesty and ability of Irish workers. That is neither profitable nor helpful. Irish workers, if they get any sort of fair or decent conditions, will give as good and as honest a return for their wages as workers in any other country. I hope we will hear no more of that sort of general criticism about malingering, dishonesty, and so on. Irish workers, both at home and abroad, have been accepted as being as good as those of any other country. Whatever Irish workers have to undergo in America and other countries, to which they are forced to go to earn a living denied them at home, they certainly have not to put up with insult and contumely such as they experience in their own country. I hope we will hear no more of that.
We believe that the Government can do a lot to help the unemployed this winter. We believe that they should tackle, in a national way, and not in the piecemeal fashion in which they have been tackled, such questions as housing, re-afforestation and drainage, and that they should tackle the question of protection and security for Irish industries that provide employment in a right manner and not take ten months to make up their minds as to whether they are going to give protection to an industry that would give employment to about 200 hands when there are 60,000 or 70,000 unemployed. In that connection I want to say that we realise that in order to carry out those schemes upon a national scale it would be necessary for the Government to borrow money, and that so far as the Labour Party are concerned, we are prepared to give our whole-hearted support to any Government elected by the people in trying to raise money for national development upon the best possible terms.
While on that, I want to say that I believe the Cumann na nGaedheal Party and the Fianna Fáil Party have a lot to answer for to the people for the damage they have done to the credit of the country during the last three or four months. We have had speakers on the Cumann na nGaedheal side going to the country telling the people that if Deputy de Valera were at the head of a Government here nobody would lend him a shilling. Is that going to help the credit of the country? On the other hand, we had speakers from the Fianna Fáil Party telling the people that because of their past history and record the present Government were the worst possible Government to float a loan. The credit of the country is not in the custody either of President Cosgrave or Deputy de Valera. The credit and honour of the country are in the custody of its people, and the sooner both of these Parties realise that the better it will be for the country. It is of greater moment for us than perhaps any other Party in the House that the loan should be got at a favourable rate of interest. The sooner a loan is got and work started the sooner the unemployed problem will be removed from the arena of politics and Party debate here. I want to stress that point: that whatever President Cosgrave and his Party may say about Deputy de Valera and his Party, or whatever Deputy de Valera and his Party may say about the President and the Party of Cumann na nGaedheal, between them they have done more damage to the country in the last three or four years than had been done to it in any previous years. What will people outside this country think? One would imagine that the money was to be advanced upon the personal security of either one or the other of them.