The amount provided by the Oireachtas for the relief of unemployment and distress in the year just closed was £1,500,010, of which £1,327,857 or 88.5 per cent. was expended within the financial year. To this expenditure should be added the contributions by local authorities amounting to £367,536, making a gross expenditure of £1,695,393. The unexpended portion of the State grant is £172,153, or 11.5 per cent. of the amount provided and this is made up of (a) under-expenditure on several sub-heads of allocation as set out below — £81,283 or 5.5 per cent., and (b) moneys not allocated— £90,870 or 6 per cent. If the latter sum is deducted from the total amount of the Vote, the expenditure represents 94 per cent. of the amount actually sanctioned and available for expenditure within the financial year.
In this regard it will be recalled that on previous occasions I called the attention of the Dáil to the fact that a large portion of the Vote is allocated to local authorities at the beginning of each year subject to contributions by them and that any failure on the part of the local authorities to accept the allocations offered to them, or any delay in doing so, must necessarily affect the expenditure as estimated at the beginning of the year. On a previous occasion the Dáil was informed that in order to achieve within any financial year the expenditure of approximately the whole of the amount provided for employment schemes in the year, it was necessary to initiate schemes considerably in excess of the amount of the Vote. In accordance with this principle schemes approximately £250,000 in excess of the amount of the Vote were sanctioned during the past financial year. The following figures refer to State grants and it may be assumed in relation to all sub-heads of expenditure for which local contributions are required, that the expenditure on the contributions has been pro rata with that on the State grant.
Public Health Schemes — A sum of £37,250 originally provided under this head was not absorbed. Having made allowance for that, the net amount available for expenditure in the year was £143,920, of which £113,920 or 78 per cent. was actually expended. In the case of the major allocations for other types of work, the programmes are prepared as a whole at an early stage of the financial year, but for public health works this is not possible as the plans and specifications for individual schemes must be checked by the Department of Local Government and Public Health, as and when proposals are put forward by the local authorities after which tenders must be invited and contracts placed. For this reason, it is especially difficult to estimate beforehand the actual expenditure on public health works within the financial year.
As the Dáil has been informed previously, the grants for public health works and peat development schemes are determined by the need that exists for such works in particular areas, and not necessarily on the relative unemployment position in those areas.
Roads (Urban) Schemes — Allocations amounting to £30,216 were not absorbed by local authorities, but of this sum, £25,000 was subsequently reallocated to other areas. The net amount available for expenditure in the financial year was £222,151, the whole of which has been expended.
Housing Site Development Works— A sum of £63,600 originally provided under this head was not taken up. The balance actually available for expenditure in the financial year was £79,925, and the whole of this amount has been duly expended.
As to miscellaneous schemes, the total amount available for expenditure was £11,780, all of which has been expended. During the course of the year grants amounting to £4,185 were made under this sub-head to 23 county councils for the removal of high hedges and other obstructions along main roads to open up views of scenery. When the results of these schemes have been inspected and their value assessed, consideration will be given to the carrying out of further works of the same kind in the present financial year. In regard to roads (rural) schemes, the amount available for expenditure was £373,553, of which £363,000, or 97 per cent., was expended. The amount available for expenditure on minor employment schemes was £405,950, which includes an allocation of £18,884 in addition to the amount originally contemplated. The full amount provided has been expended. Under the peat development schemes, the expenditure was £19,398.
As to small marine works, £3,278 of the original allocation was not absorbed. The net amount available was £6,433, of which 41 per cent. was expended. These minor marine schemes are carried out under the supervision of the engineers of the Office of Public Works and the slow progress of this work is due to the fact that, although the plans and specifications had in all cases been prepared and the work sanctioned in good time, shortage of engineering staff in the Office of Public Works and pressure of more important engineering work made it impossible to have a large proportion of the schemes put in hands. I am hopeful that in this year that particular condition will be removed.
The amount available for expenditure on land reclamation schemes during the financial year was £146,000, of which £109,000, or 75 per cent., was expended. The Department of Agriculture, which administers these schemes, state that the progress of the work has been greatly delayed by the abnormally wet and severe weather conditions which have prevailed during the season in which farmers would normally have accomplished the major portion of the field work. As a consequence the majority of the plots on which reclamation work was undertaken are still in an unfinished condition and claims for grants in respect thereof cannot be certified for payment until the actual work of reclamation is satisfactorily completed and the ground prepared for sowing or planting of crops. That means that the real expenditure has probably been greater than we were able to certify and pay.
Last year I drew attention to a number of causes which have hitherto operated to lessen the efficiency of employment schemes and to reduce the proportionate output of work thereon. Steps have been taken since to strengthen the supervisory staffs in a number of areas where this was considered necessary and every effort has been made to effect improvements where possible. This is an explanation of the increase in travelling expenses of which note was taken last night. Continued attention will be devoted to the task of achieving the highest degree of efficiency which is possible, but the special recruitment and employment regulations required to ensure the primary purpose of the Vote, namely, the relief of unemployment and distress arising from unemployment, necessarily impose limitations in this regard.
During the financial year 1938-39 upwards of 4,500 separate schemes have been carried out under the rotational system of employment. The minimum number of days' employment given in each week has hitherto been three, workers in rural areas and some urban areas having dependents receiving four or five days, varying according to their scales of unemployment assistance and the rate of wages payable on the work. Hitherto the supply of suitable works to form employment schemes has been fairly plentiful in the great majority of urban and rural areas throughout the country; but there are now indications that suitable schemes are becoming exhausted in many areas which may make it difficult or impossible to maintain the employment schemes programme at its present level or to preserve the principle which has hitherto been generally observed of making grants in proportion to the numbers of available recipients of unemployment assistance in each area. This matter is receiving close attention and every effort will be made to provide alternative types of schemes where necessary. It is only right, however, that the Dáil should know that as a result of the last few years of activity in this direction, representing as you see in this report 4,500 separate schemes in a year, the number of schemes available which can be put in the particular place in which they are required, which are themselves good and which contain a large labour content, are beginning to be exhausted. There are two maps hung up near the library, one of which shows the unemployment assistance position in the 2,000 odd electral areas of the State, and the other of which shows the actual distribution of the works. If Deputies stand back a little from these two maps they will find that they practically correspond. But, if they will examine them they will see the enormous number of small works which have to be done in the black areas in order that men may be able to get work within walking distance of their homes. Those Deputies who know the areas, and some know them very well, will realise that you cannot go on over a period of years doing that without exhausing the works, and that is becoming a very real problem. It seems to me that if we are to continue over a period of years we may be forced to some other method, such as large labour camps. Those labour camps may have to be of a moveable order, and the expense of these camps, relative to the return to the community, is going to be high. The problem is becoming, even in the rural areas, a very difficult one. Most Deputies are aware that in some of the urban areas that problem is already treading on our heels. I am saying that deliberately for the purpose of giving an opportunity to Deputies, who have experience of what is going on, to raise the question.
I do not think I need say that this Department is far more anxious for criticism and that Deputies should find fault, if in finding fault they can help to find solutions, than for any other contributions which can be got from the House. I am deliberately warning the House now that we are running into a period in which we are going to find it very difficult to maintain even the present standard of expenditure on employment schemes, if those schemes are to be distributed in anything like the proportion of the necessity of the people. What I am suggesting now is that if any Deputy has any contribution to make which would show a method which could be adopted now and gradually knit into the existing structure in respect of works with a high unskilled labour content, with a wide distribution and with a real value to the community which are not now being done, we should be very glad to hear of them.
The financial year 1936-37 marked an expansion of the Relief Vote from the general average of about £500,000 which obtained for some years previously to more than £1,500,000. Of this sum, in the first year, only 46 per cent. was expended in the financial year, largely owing to unavoidable delays in the preparation of the programme and to the fact that the main part of the work could not be started until November, leaving only five months of the financial year for actual operation. In 1937-38, the expenditure was 80 per cent. of the total provision and in the year just closed, it was, as already stated, 88.5 per cent. Of the total estimated expenditure of £1,695,393, including contributions by local authorities, during the financial year 1938-39, approximately £650,000 was expended during the period from 1st April to 31st October, and the balance of £1,045,393 during the winter months. The maximum number of workmen employed at any one time during the year was 40,670. The average number employed during the period up to October was 12,000, and, from November to March, 35,000. Of these, approximately 77 per cent. were workmen who would otherwise have been entitled to unemployment assistance. The average period of employment given to individual workmen varies with the class of work in different areas, but it is estimated that between 60,000 and 70,000 individual workmen received part-time employment of three or four days per week for an average period of 15 weeks in the year.