At question time to-day I asked the Minister for Defence the following question:—
"If he will state the number of married men existing with wife and baby on single men's pay in the National Army, and if he proposes to amend the regulations that prevent their receiving marriage allowance."
I was amazed, and I am sure the House was, to receive the following reply:—
"There are no records available in my Department which would indicate the number of men serving in the Defence Forces who are married but are not in receipt of marriage allowance. It is not proposed to extend the scope of the existing regulations which govern the conditions requisite to the payment of marriage allowance."
I have two pockets full of complaints which I have received from young soldiers and young girls—boy and girl marriages in the National Army. I will just read this one:—
"Dear Sir,—I would be very thankful if I could have a reply in writing, if possible. I am making this application to you to see if you would see your way to get my marriage allowance. As my husband and myself are only 20 years of age, I heard that I would not get it till I am 23 years. My husband will be two years in the Defence Forces on the 14th October, 1943. All the money my husband is able to send me is 15/-, out of which I have to pay 10/- for a furnished room, and then I have 5/- left to feed myself for a week. I have over £8 worth of clothes in the pawn where I am pawning every day in the week. More clothes and things go in than I am able to get out. I am expecting to go into the Rotunda Hospital. I am run down because I am not getting enough to eat. I hope you will do all in your power for me, as I need it badly because of hospital expenses and baby clothes. I do not know how to get money to pay my way as I am more times starving than anything else, so I hope my application will meet with your kind consideration and approval."
I am sure I am not the only member of this House who has received letters of this kind. I am informed that every member of the House has received at least one or two, if not half a dozen. Although the Minister. says he has no records, I believe he has 500 applications in his Department from members of the National Army— those boy-and-girl marriages—asking him, for God's sake, to give them something to live on. A young single soldier has 17/6 per week. When that young man marries, how is he, his young wife, and a baby to live on 17/6 a week? They are not living on it. They have to depend on the kindness of friends, either his mother or her mother. They have a baby. The wife has to go to her mother, and the husband to his. I am aware that in the City of Dublin we have had to apply to the Board of Assistance for poor law relief for the wives of these serving soldiers.
I am sure the Minister is aware that the Army Benevolent Fund has been called upon to assist these cases, to do for them what the funds of the National Army and the country should do. With all other members of the House I join in an appeal to the Minister to do something for these cases. When I send cases to him, there is no use in the Minister quoting for me the regulations that a soldier must have two years' Army service and must be 23 years of age before he can get the marriage allowance, and that otherwise he must continue to live on 17/6. I have had cases of young soldiers who have been three years in the Army and are 21 years of age. They are married and are not eligible for the allowance. A few weeks ago a Catholic newspaper in this city, The Standard, published an article which was placarded all over the place about family life. It said that the foundation and prosperity of a nation depended upon its children. Here we are in this country, with a Government of our own, almost advocating birth control. You cannot tell these men that they are not to get married, that their colonel will not give them permission. They will get married whether we like it or not. Therefore, we ought to face the issue and feed those for whom they are responsible. Please God, the Minister will do on this matter what he told me a dozen times from the bench opposite he could not do on another matter. He told me that he could not pay married soldiers weekly, that it would be too costly, and that he could not get staff. I had been appealing to him to pay them weekly instead of fortnightly so that they would be able to make their purchases in the cheapest market. But a fortnight or three weeks ago the Minister's Department started to do what he had told me a dozen times could not be done. In view of that, I am hopeful that the Minister will see his way to do the right thing concerning these boy-and-girl marriages.
The position which exists at the moment is not fair, and I plead with the Minister that he should give a decent marriage allowance when he goes about it—not the marriage allowance about which one hears every day whereunder a young married man, his wife and five children have to live on 31/6 per week and the wife and baby of a young married man on a single man's pay which totals 17/6 per week. The Minister knows that young fellows will get married, whether he likes it or not, permission or no permission, two years' service or no year's service. I remember in the old days, when most of us here were boys, a young man went to serve his apprenticeship at the age of 14. At the age of 21, it was his ambition to get married on the standard rate of wages paid to the trade of 36/- per week. That was the rate in the various trades in those days. No Minister, no Government and no authority in the land will stop the boys getting married when they are 21, and, knowing that, we ought to provide for it. I shall say no more than to appeal to the Minister to do something and to do it quickly in this case.
