The Minister in his statement mentioned that in many of the larger towns and cities, we had unemployment exchanges and that he hoped to get all social welfare administration into these buildings in large towns and cities. I think that is very desirable and when I was in the Department I urged that it should be done as soon as possible. I do recognise some of the difficulties that were raised by the Minister. In some of these towns and cities, the building is too small. In other cases, as well as I remember, it is impossible to get a larger space because the building is confined; while in some cases it may take a long time to reconstruct a building so as to make it suitable to house all the staff that will be necessary for the other social welfare schemes—old age pensions, national health and so on. Everyone will agree that we should aim at getting all social welfare administered in the various districts from one particular building.
On the question of branch offices the Minister did not give us his opinion. He said that he was making every effort to remedy the defects. I would like him to say if he has made up his mind as to whether he believes that more of the branch offices should be transferred over to the regular exchanges, that is to the administration of civil servants, or not, and if he thinks that these branch exchanges are being run on proper lines—I mean fundamentally on proper lines—that is, run on contract as it were and not by the Civil Service. Will he say what are the principal defects that he has in mind and what remedy he means to pursue?
The Minister gave a very brief outline of certain changes that he proposes to make in a Bill which he has already introduced—it has not yet been circulated—with regard to old-age pensions, widows' and orphans' pensions, and also covering the means test. There is no use, I think, in wasting the time of the House in discussing this matter when we have not got sufficient information. In any event, I understand that the Second Reading of that Bill will be coming up next week. There is, therefore, no use in covering the ground now since we will have more time and more information at our disposal when the Bill comes up for Second Reading. I do not propose, therefore, to go into the matter further at this stage. The Minister did mention that the proposals which he is putting before the Dáil in that Bill will mean another £2,500,000 to old-age pensioners, widows and orphans. We will see how that sum is going to be distributed.
The Minister again pleads for time. He tells us that, when this Bill is circulated, there will be some time necessary to issue the new books. That same plea was made when the Budget was before us two or three months ago. At that time the plea was made that the increased benefits could not be given to old-age pensioners and to the other classes because new books would have to be issued to the present recipients and to the prospective recipients under the new scheme. I remember pointing out in the course of the Budget discussions that, last year, when the Budget was brought in we gave the increased benefits not only to the old-age pensioners and to the widows and orphans but also to the National Health Insurance recipients and to the unemployment assistance recipients, and that there was no delay whatever. In fact, the benefits at that time came into operation on the 1st April, 1947. That is to say, they came into operation after the Vote on Account was passed and before the Budget was introduced. As I say, they came into operation on the 1st April, 1947, even though the decision was only taken by the Government a few weeks previous to that. It was possible by various devices, such as restamping the old books, by affixing additional stamps and so on, to bring the benefits into operation, and in cases where there was delay, as there necessarily was in certain cases, the money was paid by way of arrears after some weeks and matters were cleared up.
I think that, if the Minister were seriously concerned about giving these people the increased benefits, it would be done, and that there is no necessity to wait until the new books are issued. Now, if the Minister, on the other hand, is more concerned to fall in with the Fine Gael policy, as laid down by the Minister for Finance, to make economies and to delay any expenditure of this kind as far as possible, then the excuse about the new books is as good as anything else. It simply delays the matter, as far as possible, from coming into operation.
We should like to have heard a little more—we did not hear very much— about this question of the public assistance authorities. The Minister pointed out that, during the last four or five years, any additional benefits that were given to old-age pensioners or, in fact, any additional benefits that were given to other classes such as the recipients of national health insurance benefits, widows in receipt of pensions, etc., were given by the local authorities. Now, whatever the local authorities spent in that way they were recouped to the extent of 75 per cent. by the Exchequer. When the new Government took over the Minister for Social Welfare made a new Order with regard to that. He felt that the time had come when there should be a change made in that respect. I do not know why, except on the plea that people were better off than he believed they were before he came into Office. At any rate, he made a new Order to the effect that the local authorities would not be recouped to the extent of 75 per cent. in future. He told us to-day that, as a sort of transition arrangement, he is going to recoup them to the extent of 50 per cent. this year, and after this year not at all.
Now, that is one of those examples— there are, of course, many of them-where the present Ministers, before they took office, were very assiduous in their duties in the Dáil in pointing out to the Government and to the country how very inadequately the people in these classes were being treated, old-age pensioners, widows and orphans, national health and the others —that they were not by any means getting enough. The strange thing is that when they took over office they changed their minds completely, and came to the conclusion that these people were getting too much, and they made various Orders, such as the one that I have been referring to. They told the local authorities "Well, if you want to give these people additional benefits it is your lookout, not ours," and more or less said to the local authorities, "These people do not require any additional benefits, but, of course, if you want to give them additional benefits and if you want to incur that luxury in your local administration, well, let the ratepayers pay for it, because there is no reason why we should."
The point that I want to make is to ask the Minister why he should change his opinion about these people so soon after coming into office. Was it, that when he came into office he had access to more reliable figures, and, therefore, was able to make up his mind, when he came into the Department of Social Welfare, that he was wrong when he was a member of the Opposition: that he really was mistaken in making out when a member of the Opposition that these people were being badly treated: that, in fact, they were quite well treated and did not require any help from the local authorities?
The Minister went on to tell us that he has got sanction from the Minister for Finance to help local authorities with regard, I think, to the inmates of county homes. I was not quite able to keep up taking notes when he was making his statement, so that I am afraid we will have to wait for another occasion to find out what exactly this help is, and what the significance of the Minister's point is.