In dealing with the Vote on Account, the Minister for Finance started off in an extremely aggressive mood, but finished in the Seanad cooing like a dove, and we can hope that the Minister for Social Welfare, as this measure progresses, will adopt a more reasonable attitude than that which he displayed when introducing it.
I am concerned particularly with those excluded from the scope of this measure, in particular, the great majority of small farmers who make up most of the farming fraternity in my constituency. Under Deputy Norton's scheme, there was provision whereby they could partake of the benefits of the scheme through the use of their co-operative societies. In County Cork, we have 46 such societies in existence at present and, of that number, 24 are in my constituency of North Cork. Therefore, we can contend that the machinery to put that provision into operation was there.
It is a pity, for another reason, that this class was not included. The man who has just a few cows, and a small bit of land, works, plays and lives in complete harmony and understanding with the agricultural labourer. The agricultural labourer hopes, as a result of his years of service, to be able to put aside a sufficient sum of money to be used either as a dowry to enable him to marry into some little place or to acquire a little bit of land. The fact that such men are being excluded from the benefits of this measure may induce them to drop their idea of betterment. They may feel that they would be running certain risks by leaving more sheltered employment and going into self-employment where they will be denied benefits.
To-day, appeals are going out for increased production. There are many men working on the land to-day who are small farmers' sons. They were members of large families, and since there was only barely enough to provide a means of existence for one member of the family they had to go out and work as farm labourers. Many of them, too, have to go across to the other side. I know it is their desire to come back to purchase some little holding and start life at home. Many men in their position are faced with difficulties which even the man who is employed on a farm is sheltered from. There is, as we know, an expansion in the mechanisation of agriculture with an increasing degree of risk. The small farmer and his family are left completely to their own resources. They work extremely hard, over long hours on seven days of the week, and if they are disabled or maimed as a result of an accident, they have nothing to fall back upon. Consequently, I regret that this Bill gives no measure of protection to that section of our people.
Play was made by some Deputies on the opposite side by going back into the early history of this State, and drawing from it the fact that the predecessors of this Party were responsible for reducing the old age pensions by 1/-. That was a threadbare charge to make. I am sure they know well that quite a number of those old people are being catered for in homes run by religious communities, and that the greater portion of their pensions goes to meet the cost of their upkeep. The few shillings left to them give them a little bit of independence and enable them to purchase some simple luxuries. They belong to a section of the people which, under the Supplementary Budget introduced by Fianna Fáil in the autumn of 1947, suffered a far greater reduction in their income than had ever been imposed by any previous Government. Of course, it will be realised by the House that, at the time the old age pension was reduced by 1/-, that section of the community had, with all other sections, to join in repairing a lot of the damage that had been done to the country and assist in building it up again.