I move that the Bill be now read a Second Time. This Bill, described as the Social Welfare Bill, 1949, is a simple and self-explanatory Bill. The main object of the Bill is to clear the ground for the implementation of the wider social security scheme. When the Department of Social Welfare was first established, it was recognised that its function would be to merge and integrate the various social activities which up to then were administered by separate Departments and administered in an unco-ordinated way. As a result of the activities which led to the setting up of the Department of Social Welfare, all these activities in the form of unemployment insurance, unemployment assistance, old age pensions, widows' and orphans' pensions and children's allowances were all brought within the scope of the Department of Social Welfare. The only social service which was not then included in the Department of Social Welfare was the National Health Insurance Society, that is the society which administers the National Health Insurance Acts.
I should imagine that those concerned with perfecting the organisation of the Department of Social Welfare at that time realised that that was a regrettable deficiency in the setting up of the structure now known as the Department of Social Welfare. It was then realised, and I think my predecessor recognised the fact quite frankly, that it was only a matter of time until the National Health Insurance Society would be integrated in the Department of Social Welfare, because at that time it was visualised that the continued existence of the society was an impediment and would continue to be an impediment to the smooth implementation of a scheme of social security.
This Bill, therefore, is designed mainly for the purpose of dissolving the National Health Insurance Society and transferring its functions and its liabilities to the Department of Social Welfare. In any case, the National Health Insurance Society must be absorbed in the Department as a preliminary to the introduction of the wider social security scheme and it is obviously better that the society should be taken into the Department at this stage, which is ripe for its absorption, so that the society can form part of the foundations on which it is hoped to rear the wider structure of social security. It is necessary, therefore, to integrate the society in the Department, so that the society and its machinery can be welded together with the other activities of the Department and thus form the basic framework on which the new structure will be reared. It will be necessary, as those who have given any consideration to the problem have realised, to build an efficient administrative machine in order to operate the new scheme and that machine can best be planned if, at this stage, the Department has within its own control the various social activities which will call for expansion under the new scheme. It is proposed, therefore, in this Bill to dissolve the National Health Insurance Society and to transfer all its functions to the Department of Social Welfare, it being considered, especially by those who have given careful consideration to the matter, that that is a necessary preliminary to the clearing of the ground and the building of the administrative machine for the wider social security scheme.
Part 2 of the Bill provides that the existing position of the Exchequer in relation to National Health Insurance will be maintained until the new scheme comes into operation. In other words, the each-way payments by the Exchequer and by the National Health Insurance Fund have been stabilised pending the introduction of the new scheme, when these payments will again come under review.
A necessary corollary to the dissolution of the society and the transfer of its functions to the Department is the transfer of the staff at present employed by the society. This Bill, therefore, provides that the staff of the society will be transferred to the Department of Social Welfare, except in so far as two or three members of the professional and technical staff are concerned. The society has at present a staff of approximately 600. This consists of statutory officers such as the secretary and treasurer, and also the administrative and clerical staff and certain other miscellaneous staff and field agents. All these, with the exception of two or three of the professional and technical staff will be taken over and transferred to the Civil Service. Those who are pensionable at present in accordance with their employment in the National Health Insurance Society will be taken over, and become established and pensionable civil servants. Those who are non-pensionable will be taken over, and will fall into their appropriate classes in the Civil Service.
So far as the headquarters staff of the society is concerned, that is the officers, the administrative and the clerical staff, I will, in due course, seek authority to assimilate them into the general service grades. As pensionable officers of the society they will become pensionable officers of the Civil Service and will be given the benefit of the Civil Service Superannuation Acts which, I think, are better than the terms provided by their existing employment.
Section 21 of the Bill is important inasmuch as it makes provision to enable the funds of the National Health Insurance Society, which are at present invested in various investments, to be used for investment in the purchase and equipment of premises to be used by the Department of Social Welfare; but provision is made in the Bill which will enable repayment to be made by the State of not less than the income at present received on the moneys now invested by the society and which will be used for the purpose of investment in new premises for the use of the society. That section of the Bill, therefore, will ensure that there will be no loss in earning power compared with existing investments and that, in fact, under the arrangement which is being made, the balance in all probability will lie in the direction of giving us a higher investment yield than that which is secured to-day.
Anybody who knows anything about the Department of Social Welfare knows that its various activities are at present scattered over approximately ten separate buildings in the City of Dublin. The Secretary of the Department and the Minister with their small staff are in one building in Merrion Square and the other offices of the Department are scattered all over the place. It is not possible to have a conference of the higher officials of the Department without collecting them from the variety of buildings in which they at present work. I do not think it is necessary to emphasise the patchwork and unsatisfactory relations involved in the present disposition of the staff over so many and so inconveniently situated buildings. That inevitably leads to a lack of co-ordination and to an absence of smooth administration. In particular, it leads to a lack of those personal contacts so essential to the smooth administration of a Department.
In order to overcome all these difficulties, in order to co-ordinate the various activities of the Department and in order that these activities may be housed in the one building, giving all the efficiency which necessarily goes hand in hand with the closer integration of staff, it was decided that the Department should acquire for its own use a central building capable of accommodating the entire staff. As the House is aware, the premises which have now come to be known as the "Store Street" premises were offered for sale by Córas Iompair Éireann, and, as they were offered for sale, it was decided to purchase these premises for use as a central headquarters for the Department of Social Welfare. Negotiations are at present proceeding with Córas Iompair Éireann to complete the transaction. I hope that these negotiations will be brought to a satisfactory conclusion at an early date.
The acquisition by the Department of the Store Street premises will enable the Department for the first time to have a central headquarters in which all its staff can be accommodated. That, in turn, will enable the Department to shed its tenancy of many buildings at present occupied by the Department in various parts of the city, thus making these buildings available for other public purposes. I hope in that way we shall do something to arrest and, if possible, reverse the tendency so noticeable for many years past of acquiring private houses for the accommodation of Government staffs. The acquisition of a central headquarters will facilitate that process. It is bound to make for greater efficiency both in the control of staff and in the working of the administrative machine.
As I said at the outset, it is a simple and self-explanatory Bill. Apart from these main features, the rest of the Bill deals purely with machinery designed to implement the main provisions to which I have adverted and we can perhaps, therefore, agree to discuss the machinery aspects of the Bill on the Committee Stage.
