I move:—
Go ndeontar suim breise ná raghaidh thar £114,230 chun íochtha an Mhuirir a thiocfaidh chun bheith iníoctha i rith na bliana dar críoch an 31adh Mhárta, 1942, chun Tuarastail agus Costaisí Oifig an Aire Riaghaltais Aiteamhail agus Sláinte Poiblidhe, agus seirbhísí áirithe atá fé riaradh na hOifige sin, maraon le Deontaisí agus Costaisí eile i dtaobh Tithe do Thógáil, Deontaisí d'Udaráis Aitiúla, Ildeontaisí Ilghnéitheacha agus Ildeontaisí-i-gCabhair, agus muinearacha áirithe i dtaobh Oispidéal.
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £114,230 be granted to defray the charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1942, for the Salaries and Expenses of the Office of the Minister for Local Government and Public Health, and certain services administered by that Office, including Grants and other Expenses in connection with Housing, Grants to Local Authorities, sundry Miscellaneous Grants and Grants-in-Aid, and certain charges connected with Hospitals.
The details of this Estimate are set out in part III of the Estimate. The supplementary amounts are required for grants towards the supply of assistance in kind to recipients of home assistance, the provision of equipment for emergency cooked food centres, grants under the Housing (Financial and Miscellaneous Provisions) Acts, 1932 to 1941, the acquisition of lands under the Acquisition of Land (Allotments) (Amendment) Act, 1934, and an amount to make good an anticipated short fall in the Appropriations-in-Aid.
The amount required in this financial year, under sub-head J (4), for the payment of grants towards the supply of assistance in kind to recipients of home assistance is £100,000. Subject to the passing of this Estimate, the amount will be apportioned amongst the public assistance authorities on the basis of the number of persons in receipt of home assistance in February of this year, that is, last February. These provisions came into operation on the 1st October. In determining the allowance in kind to be granted, the local authorities were required to have regard to other allotments in kind provided under the free milk schemes and to persons in receipt of unemployment assistance, widows' and orphans' pensions, national health insurance disablement benefit, where such recipients were also receiving home assistance. Under sub-head L (3) the sum of £8,000 is asked for to defray the capital cost of the equipment which is required for the emergency cooked food centres.
Under Section 2, the sum of £500 is asked for to implement the provisions of the Housing Act passed earlier this year, providing for the extension of grants to private persons and public utility societies up to 1st April, 1942. It is necessary to have this Supplementary Vote in order that the money required should be made available. I may say in that connection that the number of houses completed by private persons and public utility societies up to the end of September was over 31,000. Naturally, however, building by private persons has declined during the past year. The number of houses built by such persons from 1st April, 1941, to the end of September last was 697, as compared with 1,043 for the same period in 1940. It will be appreciated, of course, that the difficulties which exist in regard to the supply of building materials have reacted very adversely upon private building. Under sub-head T an additional sum of £10,000 is required to meet the cost of providing additional allotments of land for private persons for the production of food. The original Estimate was based on the assumption that the number of such allotments to be made would be approximately 10,000. In fact, the number of existing allotments, I think, is over 23,000 of which 19,600 have been alloted to unemployed persons at nominal rents. The amount required to make good the estimated shortage in the Appropriations-in-Aid is due to the fact that we will not receive the anticipated recoupment from the Road Fund in respect of staff which it was thought might be required but which we found ourselves able to dispense with.