I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £26,710,660 be granted on account for or towards defraying the Charges that will come in course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1951, for certain public services, namely:—
£ |
||
1 |
President's Establishment |
3,000 |
2 |
Houses of the Oireachtas |
62,160 |
3 |
Department of the Taoiseach |
7,320 |
4 |
Central Statistics Office |
31,280 |
5 |
Comptroller and Auditor-General |
10,110 |
6 |
Office of the Minister for Finance |
51,450 |
7 |
Office of the Revenue Commissioners |
467,000 |
8 |
Office of Public Works |
75,200 |
9 |
Public Works and Buildings |
890,000 |
10 |
Employment and Emergency Schemes |
318,000 |
11 |
Management of Government Stocks |
25,600 |
12 |
State Laboratory |
5,400 |
13 |
Civil Service Commission |
14,800 |
14 |
Irish Tourist Board |
10,000 |
15 |
Commissions and Special Inquiries |
2,450 |
16 |
Superannuation and Retired Allowances |
315,000 |
17 |
Rates on Government Property |
80,800 |
18 |
Secret Service |
2,000 |
19 |
Expenses under Electoral Act and the Juries Act |
— |
20 |
Supplementary Agricultural Grants |
1,000,000 |
21 |
Law Charges |
33,000 |
22 |
Universities and Colleges |
141,000 |
23 |
Miscellaneous Expenses |
5,100 |
24 |
Stationery and Printing |
113,500 |
25 |
Valuation and Boundary Survey |
17,110 |
26 |
Ordnance Survey |
15,410 |
27 |
Agriculture |
5,032,000 |
28 |
Fisheries |
66,000 |
29 |
Office of the Minister for Justice |
22,850 |
30 |
Garda Síochána |
1,007,000 |
31 |
Prisons |
57,870 |
32 |
District Court |
24,400 |
33 |
Circuit Court |
33,450 |
34 |
Supreme Court and High Court of Justice |
25,670 |
35 |
Land Registry and Registry of Deeds |
26,810 |
36 |
Public Record Office |
2,510 |
37 |
Charitable Donations and Bequests |
1,390 |
38 |
Local Government |
1,635,000 |
39 |
Office of the Minister for Education |
95,200 |
40 |
Primary Education |
2,500,000 |
41 |
Secondary Education |
190,000 |
42 |
Technical Instruction |
215,000 |
43 |
Science and Art |
36,000 |
44 |
Reformatory and Industrial Schools |
85,000 |
45 |
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |
18,000 |
46 |
National Gallery |
2,850 |
47 |
Lands |
680,210 |
48 |
Forestry |
190,000 |
49 |
Gaeltacht Services |
100,000 |
50 |
Industry and Commerce |
760,900 |
51 |
Transport and Marine Services |
123,000 |
52 |
Aviation and Meteorological Services |
234,000 |
53 |
Industrial Commercial Property Registration Office |
6,450 |
54 |
Posts and Telegraphs |
1,895,000 |
55 |
Wireless Broadcasting |
82,390 |
56 |
Defence |
1,325,570 |
57 |
Army Pensions |
289,770 |
58 |
External Affairs |
119,750 |
59 |
European Co-operation |
11,600 |
60 |
Office of the Minister for Social Welfare |
139,900 |
61 |
Old Age Pensions |
2,382,800 |
62 |
Children's Allowances |
743,300 |
63 |
Unemployment Insurance and Unemployment Assistance |
534,000 |
64 |
Widows' and Orphans' Pensions |
337,360 |
65 |
National Health Insurance |
160,300 |
66 |
Miscellaneous Social Welfare Services |
73,730 |
67 |
Health |
1,725,000 |
68 |
General Register Office |
6,180 |
69 |
Dundrum Asylum |
13,000 |
70 |
Damage to Property (Neutrality) Compensation |
2,760 |
71 |
Transition Development Fund |
— |
TOTAL |
£26,710,660 |
The certain public services referred to in the motion are set out in the White Paper that is in the hands of Deputies and they are reproduced on to-day's Order Paper. As Deputies are probably aware, the individual Estimates for the coming financial year will be discussed in detail during the first four months of the year and when they are passed, they are incorporated in the annual Appropriation Act. Pending the enactment of that Act, the Dáil is now asked, as is usual, to authorise the granting of sufficient moneys in this Vote on Account to enable the public services to be carried on until the 31st July, 1950, approximately.
The amount ordinarily taken in the Vote on Account is about one-third of the total that will be required for the year, the total set out in the Book of Estimates. That one-third is not, of course, inflexible. Here and there are some Votes where payment will fall to be made, because expenditure in relation to these Estimates is heaviest during the first four months of the year. There are other Estimates where the demand is appreciably less than one-third and in these cases we need not take the full one-third. For instance, in the Vote for Primary Education I am asking for about 40 per cent. of the total Estimate for the year. This is to provide for the payment, after the 1st April, 1950, of arrears of teachers' pay increases accruing since 1st January last. That increased pay will start from the beginning of the calendar year. Therefore, I require more than the ordinary one-third in relation to that service. If Deputies are anxious for information in respect of particular Votes where I am asking for more than the customary one-third, or where I am asking for less than one-third, I can give them that information in detail.
There are certain services recorded in the Book of Estimates for this year that show an increase under certain heads. Some confusion may arise here because sometimes a comparison will be made by Deputies with the original Book of Estimates for last year and at other times a comparison will be made with what is shown in the second last column of this volume of Estimates, which shows not merely the original Estimate but that Estimate as swollen by Supplementary Estimates. For the purpose of comparison at the moment I am taking the original Estimate for 1949-50.
The principal increases in the non-capital services are as follows: The Department of Health shows an increase of something over £1,250,000. That is due to the fact that additional grants have been asked for by the health authorities and, under the law, the Central Fund has then to pay accordingly. Primary Education, contrasted with the original Estimate for 1949-'50, is up by £1,070,000. This is due to the increase in teachers' pay and pensions. The increased pay has to be made as from the beginning of the calendar year this year. The Vote for the Department of Agriculture shows an increase of £393,000, due to increased provision for subsidies. The main increase is in respect of butter. The subsidies there are payable on such milk as is produced and formed into butter and the subsidy is paid as the butter is produced.
The Department of Posts and Telegraphs shows an increase of £371,000. That is due to an increased outlay in engineering plant and materials, the conveyance of mails by rail and capital repayment. In a sense this is a fictitious increase because, to a great extent, the Vote will be met by increased revenue. In any event, it shows an increase of £371,000 over the provision made in the Vote last year. Public Works and Buildings show an increase of £280,000. That represents an increase in new works that are not regarded as capital services.
I shall deal with the capital services point in a moment.
The Department of Defence shows an increase of £271,000, due entirely to increased pay. Supplementary Agricultural Grants show an increase of £238,000, and here again is a Vote which is to some extent out of the control of the central authority. It is paid in relation to local rates and goes up as local rates go up. Old Age Pensions and National Health Insurance Votes are up by £246,000, due, so far as national health insurance is concerned to increased expenditure on benefits, and, so far as old age pensions are concerned, to a bigger number of persons in receipt of the pensions. The Department of External Affairs shows an increase of £151,000 mainly due to an expansion of staff, but due also to increased payments, some of which were necessitated by devaluation. The Garda Síochána Vote is up by about £105,000, due almost entirely to increased pay for the Gardaí. The Department of Local Government shows an increase of £60,000 on the non-capital side, due to increases in the housing loan charges of local authorities. There are quite a number of other increases of under £50,000, but I am neglecting these for the moment, and there are also certain reductions, some of which are not likely to be lasting.
The chief innovation in the presentation of the Estimates this year is the way in which the Estimates have been classified for the first time in this publication. Deputies will have noticed for themselves, and the newspapers have called attention to the fact, that the Estimates are divided this year into capital services, the total of which is £12,113,680 and other services which come to the entire sum of £66,013,553. Inside the cover, Deputies will find a note as to capital services and in each Vote, after Part II of the Vote itself, an indication as to whether the full sum for a particular Vote is being regarded as capital, and where there is any sum part of a Vote which is being regarded as capital, the segregation is made, or at least the amount regarded as capital is set out in black type.
This is an innovation in its presentation, but it cannot be an innovation to Deputies who have been attentive to what members of the different Parties who support this Government have been saying for years past and to what has been said increasingly since the group who form the present Government became that Government. For years when in opposition, the people who are now my colleagues in Government were also my colleagues in criticism of the system of finance which obtained during the period in office of our predecessors. We criticised them for the fact that they seemed to be attentive only to finance in so far as finance was used to close down on what might be called the old traditional Budget items. We criticised, and were vocal in our criticism of the then Government for not paying attention to the other side of finance, namely, the use of whatever resources there were, either in the hands of the State itself or which could be induced into national loans by State persuasion, for the development of what, I think, was universally regarded as an underdeveloped country and an underdeveloped community.