asked the Minister for Local Government and Public Health if he is aware that a large number of Dublin citizens existing on small allowances from the Dublin Board of Assistance have received no increase to meet the rising prices of many of the necessities of life; and if he now proposes to fix a suitable standard that will serve to prevent ill-health from malnutrition or from lack of clothing or bedding.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Home Help Payments.
Mr. A. Byrne
The suggestion in the first part of the Deputy's question that recipients of assistance from the Dublin Board of Assistance have received no increase to meet the rising prices of the necessities of life is not borne out by the facts. The Deputy is aware that the Government have made generous provision for meeting the cost of special food allowances to home assistance recipients throughout the country over and above the ordinary assistance granted to them by the public assistance authorities. The grant allocated for this purpose to the Dublin Board of Assistance amounted to over £40,000 in the current, and also in the last, financial year. Furthermore, I had occasion to point out recently in this House that the expenditure by the public assistance authorities on assistance has shown a tendency to rise considerably in recent years, while the number of recipients has fallen.
Mr. Byrne
The Parliamentary Secretary's reply is merely an excuse for the present system. Will the Parliamentary Secretary now reply to the last two lines of my question "... if he now proposes to fix a suitable standard that will serve to prevent ill-health from malnutrition or from lack of clothing or bedding"? This is a cold evening and the Minister can see the fog for himself and know what a cold night it will be. Is he aware that there are children completely naked in tenements in Dublin and without bedclothes? Will he alter the system that tolerates such a condition and makes the children into patients for the tuberculosis sanatoria? Will he do something immediately about it? That is what I want to know.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that the combined volume of the cost of food allowances and home assistance would not be sufficient to maintain these children if they were inmates of the Dublin Union?
I am not so aware.
Mr. Byrne
Will the Parliamentary Secretary do something about this matter immediately?
The Deputy is merely repeating a previous supplementary question.
Mr. Byrne
Yes, Sir, but a question that was not answered. Will the Parliamentary Secretary do something about this now?
I have answered the question put down by the Deputy.
Mr. Byrne
He has not answered the question, Sir.
The Deputy must resume his seat.
Mr. Byrne
You must be fair to me.
He must resume his seat.
Mr. Byrne
When I get an answer to my question.
The Deputy must obey the Chair.
Mr. Byrne
I did not get an answer to my question. There are children cold, naked and dying with hunger.
Order, order!
Mr. Byrne
There are children cold and hungry in Seán McDermott Street——
The Deputy may not defy the Chair.
Mr. Byrne
I got no reply to my question. I want to know if the Parliamentary Secretary is going to give bedding and clothing to these people who are cold, naked, and hungry off O'Connell Street, at the back of the Gresham Hotel? I have asked him a question and I want to know when he will end the present rotten system. Why will I not get an answer?
The Chair has no power to compel a Minister to give the answers which Deputies desire.
Mr. Byrne
I want a proper answer. I desire an answer that he is going to do something for those poor people in the tenements of Dublin who are suffering hardship. I know you, Smith. Keep quiet. I know what you are going to say, but I will not be put off. I want to tell the Ceann Comhairle what I often told you. I know you, Smith.
The Deputy should have some regard for the Standing Orders. Without order, business cannot be done.
Mr. Byrne
I want an answer. I want to know what he is going to do for those poor people.
The Chair. Order! Order!
Mr. Byrne
They are naked and suffering ill-health.
According to a Standing Order no Deputy may interrupt when the Chair is speaking. Deputy Byrne is a member of this House long enough to know that, yet he persists in disregarding the authority of the Chair.
Mr. Byrne
Look at them laughing at me.
The Deputy seems to have no regard for order or authority.
Mr. Byrne
I have obeyed you.
The Deputy will now withdraw from the House for the remainder of this day's proceedings.
Mr. Byrne
Am I to get no answer about the children who are cold, naked and hungry in Seán McDermott Street on these cold nights. That is what I want to know. I think I should get an answer when I apply constitutional means and suggest a remedy.
The Deputy will withdraw from the House now.
Mr. Byrne
When I get an answer, I will.
When questions are concluded, I shall have to name the Deputy.
Mr. Byrne
When I get an answer, I will.
The Deputy should have developed some sense of order by now.
Mr. Byrne
I do not care how often I break the rules of order——
Obviously.