I move:—
"Go ndeontar suim ná raghaidh thar £300,000 chun íoctha an Mhuirir a thiocfidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh lá de Mhárta, 1931, chun sintiúisí i gcóir fóirithinte ar dhíomhaointeas agus ar ghátar.
That a sum not exceeding £300,000 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1931, for contributions towards the relief of unemployment and distress."
Relief votes have been passed by the Dáil in previous years and on certain occasions substantially larger sums than that now asked for were voted. The largest sum voted was in 1924-25, amounting to £500,000. It is felt that in the present circumstances the sum now asked for is ample to do all that can be done in this way to relieve such exceptional unemployment and distress as exist and that it is quite adequate to meet the situation. The reports that are available do not indicate that there are the difficulties in the country that were here, say, in 1924-25. The variation in the registered number of unemployed, as compared with previous years, is very small and, while undoubtedly the economic situation has been adversely affected by the weather, the position generally is not at all of the alarming sort which we experienced on one or two previous occasions. In addition to this sum which is now being voted there are, of course, large amounts in the various Votes which tend directly or indirectly to promote employment. There are large sums in the Office of Public Works Vote for new works and additions to the extent of about £420,000. There is available in the Local Loans Vote for improvement works which will be carried out by local authorities a sum of £550,000. There is a vote of over £140,000 for drainage. There are housing grants in the Local Government Vote to the extent of £217,000. The Land Commission has available for improvements on estates a sum of over £211,000. Under the Gaeltacht housing scheme a sum will be available for grants of £60,000. Under the heading "Forestry" a sum of £43,000 is available for cultural operations. In addition, there is a substantial sum in the Property Losses Compensation Vote which will be expended on the erection of buildings.
Broadly speaking, the amounts available for works which give direct employment do not fall very far short of £2,000,000. In addition, there will be an outlay in connection with the operations of the Electricity Supply Board of a substantial amount. There are, of course, big allocations from the Road Fund amounting to a sum of £850,000. In addition to the £550,000 which I have already mentioned in connection with grants-in-aid to the Local Loans Fund, there will be a further sum available of over £100,000. There are, as I have said, very big sums provided out of votes for the provision of employment which will actually provide employment for very large numbers of people. The relief votes have been expended in the past, so far as the main portion of them was concerned, partly through the Local Government Department or local bodies and partly through the Land Commission. Local bodies have been given percentage grants to enable them to carry out certain works. For instance, a local authority contemplating, say, a new water scheme has been induced to go ahead by being given a free grant of 25 per cent. or some other proportion. In that way a good deal of employment has been procured and good work has been done.
The Land Commission has expended money on drainage schemes, various improvement schemes such as the making of bog roads, and other minor works. Sometimes in the desire to expend the whole of the relief grants before the end of the year, there may have been mistakes made and not quite the best value obtained for the money spent in all cases. We desire as far as possible in this instance to make sure that the fullest value will be got for all the money expended, and we propose that, if there is any proportion of the sum which cannot be expended before the end of the year, it shall be re-voted and that any works which are undertaken shall be completed. In one or two cases it happened that the works were not completed, and while they were not altogether useless their value was not so much in the incompleted stage as it would be in the completed stage. In this instance we will make an attempt to map out the expenditure so that we will not start on a larger scale than can be carried out with the sum mentioned in the Estimates. If that cannot be carried out before the end of the year then the proper proportion of the Vote will appear again in the Estimates to enable the works to be finally completed.
Another factor which has been already mentioned, in addition to the effects of the bad harvest weather, which induced the Government to propose this Vote to the Dáil, was the fact that there are indications that the areas in which receipts of money from America is an important item are likely to suffer this year. Many reports have come to the Government, and they seem to be true, that the same sum will not be available owing to depression in America as had been available in other years. That would be a factor in considering the geographical distribution of the grant so far as it can be controlled. Of course, so far as the amount in urban areas is concerned, it cannot be very well controlled.
In certain districts either the local authority has no scheme or they moved too late to enable anything to be done. In the year of the first Vote, 1924-25, the amount actually expended was £385,000 out of a total grant of £550,000. Of that, a sum of £133,600 was paid out in grants to local authorities. A sum of £186,000 was expended by the Land Commission on these improvement works such as drainage, bog roads and the actual improvement of the estates. An additional £23,000 went to the Forestry Department for doing extra forestry work in that year. The remainder was spent in smaller schemes. There was a fuel and schools meal scheme that year which cost £16,800. In the year 1925-26 the actual amount expended was £336,000. Of that, local authorities got £175,500, and the Land Commission expended on improvement work £137,000, while the Forestry Department got £11,500. Then in the year 1927-28 the amount expended was £101,000 odd. Public Health schemes absorbed £48,900 and improvement works by the Land Commission £51,480.