The Department of Social Welfare is naturally a very important one and the Minister holds a very important position as head of that Department in the life of this country and the welfare of the people as a whole, because to him is laid out the task of providing for the section of the community who are not fit or able to provide for themselves. For that reason when the present Minister for Social Welfare took office, we on this side of the House, the members of the Government, naturally expected that a good measure would be introduced before this House making provision for those people. The Minister has given to this Dáil a Bill, and in fairness to it, it is at the present time as good and makes as good a provivision for these people I have mentioned as this country can possibly afford. It is not first class; it is not by any means the greatest social welfare Bill that could be brought into the House, but when we take into consideration and examine the financial position of our country we may realise that the country cannot possibly pay those people who are in need the same benefits that can be paid by neighbouring countries that are much more wealthy and have better financial resources at their disposal than we have. I want, therefore, to compliment the Minister for Social Welfare in the way he has set out in his effort to bring a certain amount of justice and fair play to the few sections of our community who have been forgotten in this Parliament and by previous Governments over a long number of years.
The most welcome part of this Bill is the Minister's statement that £2,500,000 extra will be given in pensions to pensioners of different types, £1,500,000 to old age pensioners and £1,000,000 to widows and orphans. The old age pensioners are the most deserving section of the community, old men or old women, as the case may be, who have given a life of toil, a life of hard work, a life of struggle and, many of them, a life in which they have denied themselves the comforts they were or should be entitled to in their efforts to make a livelihood for themselves and their families and who find themselves in their old age in as poor a financial position as when they started in life. The State should come to their assistance, to give them that measure of security which should provide comforts for them in the holiday of their life, if you like to put it that way. Very little effort has been made by anybody, by any Government irrespective of Party, until the present Minister for Social Welfare and the present Government took it on themselves to decide that those people should get the fair play and recognition they deserve. As we all know, as everybody in political life knows, the best political plank any platform can have is to say something about the old age pensioners. The spokesman of any political Party who will stand outside any chapel gate or at any political meeting and tell the community in general that he advocates great increases for the old age pensioners will get their ear and plenty of support. Unfortunately for the old age pensioners and for the Irish people as well, the old age pensions game has been very much played in past years, while no real effort has ever been made to provide a standard of security until the present time. We have promises of course and always will have promises in an effort to catch votes.
As I have said, it is a very useful thing, a very useful system of propaganda, but when the first test came of providing the money and showing the sincerity of the wish to give the people what they are entitled to, we have found out that all Parties failed up to now. I think, therefore, that in this Bill the present Minister for Social Welfare and the present Government have, if not fulfilled their promises or all the things they would have liked to fulfil, definitely advanced a considerable step in the right direction and made great headway and progress as they should make and were entitled to make.
There are one or two matters which prevent this Bill from being the perfect measure that we would like it to be. Personally, I would be very pleased if the means test were modified even more or, if possible, abolished altogether. If we abolished the means test, we could turn the amount of money which goes into administration of the means test over to the payment of extra allowances to old age pensioners and widows and orphans and in that way we would be doing something better. When we take into consideration, however, that, if that happened, men as rich as Croesus or as poor as a church mouse would be equally entitled to receive a pension, we must consider that the means test is a certain check on extravagance which would occur if it were not imposed. If we had such a sense of honour in the Irish people that a man or woman who was wealthy enough in old age to live would not make any demand on the State for assistance, we could do without the means test.
It is unfortunate, but I suppose it is the same all over the world, that the eyes of the people are directed, not entirely, but very much towards the Governments of their countries to provide for them and will immediately snap up even a trivial amount of money which will fall from the hands of the Government. Even though people may have ample wealth to keep themselves in a state of comfort and happiness in old age. I still believe that, if the means test were abolished altogether, even the wealthiest section of the community would be drawing their pensions even quicker than some of the poorer sections of the people. Therefore, I see a certain amount of good in maintaining the means test. I will, however, be candid and honest about my own personal opinion of it and it is that I should like to see it abolished at the earliest possible moment, because I still believe that we have enough of honour left in this country to prevent those who do not need old age pensions applying for them.
In introducing the Bill the Minister said that he is hopeful it will be possible to do away with the means test in time to come. For that reason, I hope that at a later date he will live up to the promise he has given and, if the country prospers sufficiently to allow of the means test being abolished, that he will in the near future or in the not too distant future introduce a measure to abolish it. In doing that, I am sure he will have the support of every Deputy.
There are a few objections which I see to the means test as provided for in this Bill. It is all very well to raise it at the top from £39 5s. to £52 5s., but the £15 12s. 6d. remains at the bottom. I should like if the Minister could possibly increase that at least to £25. In that way he would be taking a definite step which would give satisfaction and meet with the approval of every Deputy and he would gain for himself the everlasting gratitude of those old people who are cut out from receiving the old age pension because this £15 12s. 6d. still stands against them. However, taking the Minister at his word and relying on him, I shall leave the matter entirely in his hands in the hope that in the near future he will see his way to amend the means test further so far as the bottom scale is concerned, so that those people who are cut out from receiving pensions will benefit by the alteration.
There is, of course, a limited amount of money available in this country. We have heard from the opposition of the promises and assurances that were given on election platforms as to what each section would do if they obtained the reins of Government. We have heard of promises of old age pensions of 32/6 by one Party and of 25/- by another Party. Fortunately, our little Party have come unscathed out of that conflict, because we were sensible not to promise anything to anybody except that we would help any Party or group of Parties to do the best they possibly could for the Irish people.
Everybody here would be glad if we could pay 25/- a week to every old age pensioner. The demand which that would make on the Exchequer, however, would create a certain amount of doubt in the minds of the people as to whether the country could afford to pay such a high rate of pension. When we look at it in that way and at what the pensioners were getting formerly, all I can say is that the Minister has struck a fair balance between the two and, with a few exceptions, has produced a very good Bill, which will no doubt create great satisfaction and contentment all over the country.
The fact that 90 per cent. of the recipients of old age pensions are in receipt of the full pension is something that I did not know until I heard it from the Minister yesterday. As a Deputy who has had to make so many demands on the Department of Social Welfare to increase pensions for my constituents, I personally was of the opinion that not more than 50 per cent. of the recipients were in receipts of the full pension. I am glad to know that 90 per cent. of them are in receipt of the full pension. I do not think it would be wrong if the means test were modified a little bit so that at least 95 or 98 per cent. of the recipients would be eligible for the full pension when this Bill comes into force.
The only thing I do not like is that this Bill cannot be put into operation at an early date. The announcement by the Minister for Finance in his Budget statement that pensions would be increased caused old age pensioners to look forward eagerly to that increase. We find, however, that we will be into 1949 before any financial assistance will be given to these old age pensioners. I presume that is not the fault of the Minister for Social Welfare or the Minister for Finance. Although some people would rather see this Bill in operation in a month or six weeks, those who have waited 20 or 25 years for a little extra allowance of money will be glad to know that a date has been fixed on which they will receive their increased old age pension. Although there may be a considerable number of grousers, nevertheless I believe that when the facts are brought home to the people everybody will be satisfied to wait for the time when they are to receive the benefits to which they are definitely entitled and which they should have received ten or 12 years ago when the cost of living started to increase and commodities which they had to purchase began to get dear for them.
Another welcome section of this Bill is that which does away with food vouchers and the supplementary allowances which necessitated the old age pensioner calling like a pauper to the assistance officers every week to receive his 1/-, 2/- or 2/6 as the case may be. The right way to carry out a pensions scheme is to put on the pension book the amount granted rather than have the old age pensioners wasting time by one day drawing the old age pension at the Post Office, another day going to the assistance officer for the allowance that the assistance officer will give him, and yet a third day going to some other officer for the food voucher or the slip of paper which will entitle him to a certain amount of food. This system of payment on the pension book will meet with much approval from every old age pensioner and every official who serves the old age pensioner because it will simplify the job for him and everybody will be happier.
The investigation officer has been much criticised and he definitely should be much criticised because of the methods he employed in seeking information about the private affairs of individuals when assessing the means test. He had, however, his duty to do. If out of his hands was taken the very nasty job of probing into the way the people get their money—or the amount of their savings or the small amount of money or goods they have which could be regarded as income—and a scheme devised which would cut out the necessity for such probing into the private affairs of old people, it would be a matter of satisfaction to them.
The function of the Minister for Social Services is, as I said at the outset, to provide help for the six sections of the community who are not able to help themselves. I refer to those who are unemployed through no fault of their own; those who are aged, those who are widows; those who are orphans; those who are blind and those who are disabled. In providing for these six sections of the community the State is doing a duty to its citizens and to the people who should be looked after. None of those six sections of the community would turn to the State for aid if they were able or fit to provide for themselves.
On the other hand, take the case of the industrious man or woman who has reached 70 years of age and who never made a demand for a single penny on State finances or State help. Through their industry and thrift they have amassed for themselves a little fortune to keep them comfortable in their old age. Those people were penalised. It was, in fact, a penalty to be thrifty. The individual who never got down to hard work and who simply lounged around without making any provision for the rainy day, on reaching the age of 70, becomes fully entitled to the maximum amount of the old age pension. The citizen who worked hard has to go through a rigorous examination by the investigation officer and, in many instances, is granted only a miserable 1/- or 2/- or 5/-, as the case may be. This measure is an effort to right that position. If it is not fully comprehensive in bringing about an end to this wrong, which I maintain there is, it is in its own little way, an effort towards bringing those who are thrifty and industrious nearer to getting the old age pension which they fully deserve and to which they are entitled.
The fact that orphans', as well as widows', contributory and non-contributory pensions will be increased is also very welcome. Widows, unfortunately, find themselves in very poor financial circumstances after the loss of their husbands and they, as well as everybody else, are entitled to whatever help they will get under this Bill. Let me say that the amount of money given to the old age pensioners is by far the most satisfactory item in this Bill and it will be received with approval by the people as a whole.
I was surprised at the speech which was made by Deputy Lemass yesterday, in which he told us that nobody in this House is against social services and that nobody in this House ever wanted to see old age pensioners or unemployed or anybody else not getting what they were entitled to. In the short time during which I have been a member of this House, one measure at least in this connection was introduced by members of the Fine Gael Party while in opposition and it was supported by every other Party which was then in opposition. It was a motion to the effect that any earnings in cash or in kind which an old age pensioner earned after 70 years of age should not count against him and that any moneys got from his family should not count against him for means test purposes. That motion was defeated by the overwhelming majority vote of the Party, who now cry out and say that the old age pensioners should have got this long ago. Deputy Lemass also told us that Fianna Fáil was planning to introduce an even better Bill into this House. They had 15 long years in which to plan and to plot and to lay it out.
In fairness to all sections of the community who pay taxes, let me say that the Irish people were scourged with taxation which was sufficient to provided more money for the old age pensioners than the old age pensioners were getting. We now find that Fianna Fáil intended to introduce a better Bill than that which the present Minister for Social Welfare has introduced. It was for them, and maybe for the old age pensioners a fateful thing that the events of the 4th of last February turned out as they did, and even more so that the events of the 18th of last February turned out as they did. If this famous Bill had been introduced—if they had got back into power—surely the old age pensioners would rub their eyes in wonder. I daresay that all they would have got under it would be what they had not over the past 16 years, namely, very little help or consideration from the Government or the Party that has just gone out of office. Deputy Seán Lemass has told us that the imposition of taxation is an unpopular move in any Government. That is quite true. The imposition of taxation which inevitably makes it harder for the taxpayer to live is something which will never have the approval of the people as a whole. Yet, in my short political career, I have never met any taxpayer who objected to taxation if that taxation were for the purpose of providing better benefits for the old, the widows and the orphans, the unemployed, the blind and the disabled. Of course, the people would complain if taxation were levied for grandiose schemes, such as the purchase of Constellation aircraft or the erection of a short-wave station. Those were the schemes upon which the previous Government was embarked. Under their régime the old, the sick, the blind, the widows and the orphans waited a long time for a square deal. One would have thought last October when the Supplementary Budget was introduced, with its increases on beer, tobacco and cinemas, that the Government then would have evolved some scheme of increasing old age pensions, blind pensions, unemployment assistance and so on. These unfortunate people waited and hoped.
I am surprised that Deputy Lemass should have the temerity now to tell this House that Fianna Fáil, if it had returned to power, would have inaugurated some scheme which would have brought increased benefits to these people. If Fianna Fáil had gone back as a Government in February we would have found ourselves now faced with another election and, in their bid for popularity in that election, they probably would have introduced a Bill giving increases to old age pensioners and others. That would have been a popular measure in connection with any election. That would have been a popular political move on their part and it would possibly have received overwhelming acclamation from all sections of the community. But the day of Fianna Fáil is past and gone.
The Minister for Social Welfare has taken a big step forward in providing these pension increases. We do not all agree that the present increases are sufficient, but they are a step towards something better when the opportunity arises and when the financial resources of the State are such that it will be within our compass to do much more for these sections of our community. The comment was made on this Bill that the Minister, in introducing it, had sounded the last post over the grave of Fianna Fáil. I thoroughly agree with that. As well as granting the increases to the old age pensioners and others this Bill brings about the abolition of the system of food vouchers and in that way it saves the ratepayers a certain amount of money. I think it would be a good thing if the Minister could grant blind pensions at an even earlier age. Blindness is the worst affliction of all the ills to which humanity is subject.
If I am to get any publicity in the Press, I trust that the Irish Press will not misrepresent me on this occasion as it misrepresented me when the Budget was passing through this House. That particular Party organ has an unhappy little knack of taking out of its context statements made by Deputies on the Government Benches and thereby misrepresenting the Deputies' views.
