asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he will state the total number of workers paying contributions under the Unemployment Insurance Acts, in the Irish Free State on the 1st January in the years 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, and up to 1st October, 1927, respectively.
WRITTEN ANSWERS. - UNEMPLOYMENT ACT CONTRIBUTIONS.
It is not possible to give the desired particulars for the dates mentioned in the question.
It is only at the annual exchange of books that my Department is in a position to ascertain the total number of persons who worked in an insurable occupation for some time, long or short, in the preceding year. The numbers of unemployment books current in the insurance years, which ended about the middle of the years 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927 were:—
Insurance year ended
|
30th June, 1923 |
242,494 |
|
30th June, 1924 |
250,279 |
|
27th June, 1925 |
254,281 |
|
3rd July, 1926 |
246,134 |
|
2nd July, 1927 |
245,613 |
Figures for 1922 are not available for the Saorstát separately. In 1924 and 1925 the numbers were increased by reason of the issue of books to exsoldiers who had never been insured to enable them to obtain the special benefit issued to them in those years.