I move:—
That a supplementary sum not exceeding £317,900 be granted to complete the sum necessary to defray the Charge which will come in the course of payment during the year ending on the 31st day of March, 1953, for Expenses in connection with Unemployment Insurance (including Contributions to the Unemployment Fund), and Unemployment Assistance (9 Edw. 7, c.7; 10 & 11 Geo. 5, c.30; 11 Geo. 5, c.1; 11 & 12 Geo. 5, c.15; 12 Geo. 5, c.7; No. 17 of 1923; Nos. 26 and 59 of 1924; No. 21 of 1926; No. 33 of 1930; Nos. 44 and 46 of 1933; No. 38 of 1935; No. 2 of 1938; No. 4 of 1940; No. 3 of 1941; No. 20 of 1943; No. 23 of 1945; No. 37 of 1946; No. 17 of 1948, and No. 11 of 1952).
I am submitting to-day two Supplementary Estimates for my Department for which it is necessary to obtain the approval of the Dáil before the Christmas Recess. They are for unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance and widows' and orphans' pensions.
Deputies will remember that I stated, when the Second Stage of the Social Welfare Act, 1952, was before this House, that the additional cost of this measure as it then stood to the Exchequer in the present financial year was estimated at £2,000,000. The Bill was subsequently amended in Committee to provide for increased weekly payments to recipients of old age and blind pensions, and to recipients of unemployment assistance. These increases were estimated to cost the Exchequer a further sum of £762,000 in the present year, making the total additional cost to the Exchequer in the present year of the Social Welfare Act, 1952, as passed by the Oireachtas, a sum of approximately £2,750,000.
The two Supplementary Estimates now before you provide for part of that sum to the extent of £929,100. The remainder will be provided in further Supplementary Estimates which will be submitted when the House reassembles in the New Year.
The bulk of the amount required under the Supplementary Estimate for unemployment insurance and unemployment assistance is in respect of the increased payments of unemployment assistance amounting to £274,250. This amount is required to meet the increased weekly rates of unemployment assistance which have been payable since the 25th June, 1952. These increased rates, along with a relaxation of the means test, have resulted in a substantial increase in expenditure over the amount originally provided.