asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will state the number of persons in insurable employment in the country on 1st October, 1952, and 1st October, 1951.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Number in Insurable Employment.
Statistics are not available as to the actual number of persons in insurable employment at any particular time. Estimates of the average number in insurable employment are, however, made annually by an inter-departmental committee and are published and presented to the Oireachtas in memoranda entitled the "Trend of Employment and Unemployment". The average number of persons employed weekly in occupations insurable under the National Health Insurance Acts during 1950 and 1951 as estimated by the committee was 489,800 and 498,900 respectively. No estimate can yet be made for 1952.
Is the Parliamentary Secretary serious when he says it is not possible to say how many people are working in this country on a given day?
The contributions are not paid weekly. They are paid at different periods by different employers.
So far as I know the law there is an obligation on the employer to stamp a man's card every week when he pays him.
But he does not have to buy the stamps every week.
He must affix the stamp every week.
Might I remind Deputies that there are three times as many questions on the Paper as have been dealt with in an hour? There are 160 questions and we have dealt with 51 in over an hour.
Is it the intention to go on with questions until they are disposed of? And does it not strike the Chair as a pretty good record to have disposed of 51 questions at an average speed of 1.25 minutes per question?
The Chair merely endeavoured to make it clear that there are more than three times as many questions to be answered as have been disposed of. In accordance with general practice, I take it the House will finish questions to-day.