I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £10 be granted to defray the Charge which will come in course of payment during the year ending 31st March, 1948, for certain Grants-in-Aid of the National Health Insurance Fund and for other payments under the National Health Insurance Acts, 1911 to 1947, and the Supplies and Services (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946, and for certain other grants.
The necessity for this Supplementary Estimate arises solely out of the strike of the clerical and Dublin agency staff of Cumann an Árachais Náisiúnta ar Shláinte. On 17th January, 1948, the committee of management of the society informed the Minister for Social Welfare that, owing to the strike, the society was unable to pay benefits to its members and asked the Minister to take the necessary steps to ensure the continuation of the payment of benefits or to make arrangements for benefits in lieu thereof. In response to this request the Government, under the powers conferred by the Supplies and Services (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1946, made the Social Welfare (Substitutive Allowances) Order, 1948. Under this Order, arrangements were made to supply public assistance authorities with particulars of all persons in receipt of incapacity benefits at the date of the strike and these persons were informed that on application to the home assistance officers, payments would be made at the rate of 15/- a week in the case of men and 13/6 a week in the case of women. Arrangements were also made to deal with any new claims arising after that date.
Any expenditure by local authorities under the Order will be refunded to them out of the National Health Insurance Vote, and it is proposed at a later date to provide by legislation that the Exchequer be recouped out of the National Health Insurance Fund the amount of the expenditure which would have been met from that fund were it not for the strike.
The Supplementary Estimate which the Dáil is asked to approve provides for expenditure on substitutive allowances and administration amounting to £90,010. This is the maximum estimated expenditure in connection with these allowances up to the end of the current financial year. As savings amounting to £90,000 are anticipated on other sub-heads of the Vote for National Health Insurance the net sum required is £10. It only remains for me to express my appreciation to the local authorities and their staffs in the discharge of this onerous and in the present circumstances disagreeable task.