I move:—
That a sum not exceeding £36,200,000 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, 1957, for certain public services, namely:—
£ |
||
1 |
President's Establishment |
2,800 |
2 |
Houses of the Oireachtas |
77,500 |
3 |
Department of the Taoiseach |
9,900 |
4 |
Central Statistics Office |
58,000 |
5 |
Comptroller and Auditor-General |
12,340 |
6 |
Office of the Minister for Finance |
58,000 |
7 |
Office of the Revenue Commissioners |
677,340 |
8 |
Office of Public Works |
180,000 |
9 |
Public Works and Buildings |
1,180,000 |
10 |
Employment and Emergency Schemes |
235,000 |
11 |
Management of Government Stocks |
47,630 |
12 |
State Laboratory |
9,000 |
13 |
Civil Service Commission |
20,000 |
14 |
An Chomhairle Ealaíon |
6,500 |
15 |
Commissions and Special Inquiries |
3,900 |
16 |
Superannuation and Retired Allowances |
318,000 |
17 |
Rates on Government Property |
10,000 |
18 |
Secret Service |
2,500 |
19 |
Expenses under the Electoral Act and the Juries Act |
— |
20 |
Supplementary Agricultural Grants |
1,250,000 |
21 |
Law Charges |
41,000 |
22 |
Universities and Colleges |
350,000 |
23 |
Miscellanous Expenses |
9,000 |
24 |
Stationery Office |
194,500 |
25 |
Valuation and Boundary Survey |
25,280 |
26 |
Ordnance Survey |
22,660 |
27 |
Agriculture |
2,506,000 |
28 |
Fisheries |
53,000 |
29 |
Office of the Minister for Justice |
31,800 |
30 |
Garda Síochána |
1,672,000 |
31 |
Prisons |
61,900 |
32 |
District Court |
30,600 |
33 |
Circuit Court |
43,600 |
34 |
Supreme Court and High Court of Justice |
33,900 |
35 |
Land Registry and Registry of Deeds |
35,700 |
36 |
Public Record Office |
3,400 |
37 |
Charitable Donations and Bequests |
1,900 |
38 |
Local Government |
1,810,000 |
39 |
Office of the Minister for Education |
126,000 |
40 |
Primary Education |
3,250,000 |
41 |
Secondary Education |
350,000 |
42 |
Technical Instruction |
420,000 |
43 |
Science and Art |
60,000 |
44 |
Reformatory and Industrial Schools |
100,000 |
45 |
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies |
20,000 |
46 |
National Gallery |
3,770 |
47 |
Lands |
866,950 |
48 |
Forestry |
567,000 |
49 |
Gaeltacht Services |
170,000 |
50 |
Industry and Commerce |
2,508,000 |
51 |
Transport and Marine Services |
578,000 |
52 |
Aviation and Meteorological Services |
140,000 |
53 |
Industrial and Commercial Property Registration Office |
9,000 |
54 |
Posts and Telegraphs |
3,100,000 |
55 |
Wireless Broadcasting |
143,500 |
56 |
Defence |
2,344,500 |
57 |
Army Pensions |
543,450 |
58 |
External Affairs |
170,950 |
59 |
International Co-operation |
20,130 |
60 |
Office of the Minister for Social Welfare |
183,700 |
61 |
Social Insurance |
715,300 |
62 |
Social Assistance |
6,174,000 |
63 |
Health |
2,400,000 |
64 |
Dundrum Asylum |
16,500 |
65 |
Oifig na Gaeltachta agus na gCeantar gCúng |
1,600 |
66 |
Tourism |
133,000 |
TOTAL |
£36,200,000 |
|
The Vote on Account marks the beginning of the business of the new financial year. It represents usually a four months' provision for each supply service and covers expenditure, therefore, up to about the end of July, when normally all the Estimates have been discussed and approved by the Dáil and the Appropriation Bill passed into law.
Deputies will have seen from the title page of the Estimates Volume for 1956-57 that the total of the Estimates for the Supply Services for the year comes to £109,123,280. The amount of the Vote on Account I am now asking for is £36,200,000, that is, one-third of the total. The items covered by the Vote are set out on the Order Paper.
The total of £109,123,280 is an increase of £3,635,187 on the figure on the title page of the 1955-56 volume. When, however, account is taken of the Supplementary Estimates passed during 1955-56 there is a decrease of £1,869,271. The total provision for 1955-56 includes, of course, the £3,000,000 recently provided for the National Development Fund. If this is excluded, the 1956-57 figures show an increase of £1,130,729 on the total provision for the current year.
Naturally I should have wished to produce a lower total for the coming year but, when regard is had to the higher price level, the heavy additional charges for salaries and wages and the higher provisions for health services and old age pensions to which we were already committed by statute, it will be understood what great care has been taken to confine next year's requirements to a minimum.
In fact, the total increase in the Estimates under the heading of remuneration falls little short of £3,500,000. It is this factor which is mainly responsible for the largest individual increase shown in the Estimates, namely, £639,400 for Primary Education. Other significant increases due largely to increased remuneration are the additional £592,500 for Posts and Telegraphs, the extra £131,840 for the Office of the Revenue Commissioners and the extra £125,100 for the Garda Síochána. The provision for Army pay has also been increased by £155,000 but, owing to other economies in the Vote for Defence, the Vote as a whole shows a reduction of £217,200.
The provision for grants to health authorities shows an increase of £971,000, due to the extensions of the health services which are to become effective at the end of this month and to the increased cost of existing services operated by the various local authorities but one-half the cost of which the State is liable to contribute.
The provision for the agricultural grant is up £249,000 because of anticipated increases in local rates. The net increase of £41,000 in the main Vote for Agriculture conceals considerable variations in the individual services. Appropriations-in-Aid of the Agriculture Vote are up by £661,000, mainly because of recoupment from the American Grant Counterpart Special Account of the cost of certain schemes. This recoupment covers an increase of £350,500 in the provision for bovine T.B. eradication and grants of £160,000 for the pasteurisation of separated milk.
The net increase of £256,000 odd for Forestry is mainly accounted for by an additional £153,250 for forest development which will enable us to plant a greater area in the coming year.
For University Education I am providing next year an additional £135,000, of which £127,500 will be borne on the Vote for Universities and Colleges and the balance on the Vote for Agriculture. Apart from two grants of £10,000 each—one towards additional accommodation at University College, Galway, and the other for the repair of certain historic buildings at Trinity College, Dublin—this additional assistance takes the form of a uniform increase on the existing provision plus certain additions which have regard to the individual requirements and responsibilities of the colleges concerned, particularly, with reference to their medical schools.
The Industry and Commerce Estimate shows a fall of £546,210, mainly because of a decrease of £716,000 in the provision for food subsidies due to the decreased cost of both native and imported wheat. The only noteworthy increase offsetting this decrease is an extra £165,000 for An Foras Tionscal.
The Estimate for Transport and Marine Services is down by £136,000 but, while the provision for the G.N.R. Board shows a reduction of £146,400, requirements under this head will not be known with accuracy until after the end of the board's working year in September next. Grants for harbours are expected to cost £64,500 less because the post-war development of our ports is nearing its final stages. Constructional work at Shannon and Dublin Airports, however, will need an additional £100,000. Higher receipts— mainly from catering and landing fees —are expected to offset this and other increases in the Vote for Aviation and Meteorological Services, leaving the net increase in the Vote at £85,300.
The provision for payments to the Social Insurance Fund shows a decrease of £618,000 but, in fact, a substantial saving is expected on this Vote in the current year because the employment situation has proved to be better than was anticipated when the provision was originally framed. It is expected that the employment situation will not be materially different in 1956-57.
Under the heading of Social Assistance, old age pensions—the major item —shows an increase of £70,000, but, of course, the 1955-56 total provision included the extra £820,000 voted during the year to cover higher pension rates.
There is a decrease of £1,000,000 in the amount required by the Hospitals' Trust Fund from the Exchequer towards the financing of the hospital building programme.
In the case of public works and buildings there is a reduction of £302,000 in the provision for new works and alterations partly because of a reduction of £125,000 in the amount for the new runways at Baldonnel now approaching completion. The current year's provision for new works will not be fully expended.
The Estimates contain provision for the first time for our contribution as a member of the United Nations and the cost of our representation, the total being roughly £93,000.
The segregation of capital and other services in the preface to the Estimates Volume follows the pattern of previous years. It has to be remembered, however, that the volume covers only the provision to be made for Supply Services and that account will have to be taken in due course of Central Fund Services and "below-the line" issues for capital purposes. The entire financial position will not become known until these additional details are filled in and the Budget for next year is presented to the House.
So much for the Vote on Account and the amounts included in the Estimates Volume for the various services for the coming financial year. I must now, unfortunately, turn to another matter which has been causing the Government some anxiety in recent months.
Last year the Central Statistics Office estimated our balance of payments deficit for the year 1954 at £5.5 million. When mentioning that estimate in my Budget speech, I was aware that the reduction of the deficit in 1954 was due partly to a drawing down of stocks at the end of 1954 and I referred to the replenishment of stocks which was already apparent in the import figures for the early months of 1955. I shall return to that feature later.
As members of the House already know, the adverse balance in our trade increased in 1955 by £29.3 million. Imports amounted to £204.3 million or an increase of £24.5 million in value while exports decreased in value by £4.8 million to £110.3 million. This increase in the adverse balance was not caused to any significant degree by the terms of trade—that is to say by the comparative prices of the things we buy from abroad and those we sell to other countries. Import prices were 4 per cent. higher than in 1954. Export prices, however, were 3½ per cent. higher, one thus almost counterbalancing the other, though, as imports are almost double exports, the adverse effect of the price movement on the balance of trade was £4,500,000. The increase in the trade deficit was, however, caused for the most part by changes in the volume of our trade, imports being 9 per cent. higher than in 1954, while exports were 7 per cent. lower than in the previous year.
At this stage we have not an exact measurement of our "invisible" items in 1955 but it is unlikely they will show other than a marginal variation from the returns of the previous year. If we assume invisibles at the same net figure as in 1954, as indeed we must in the absence of clear evidence of a variation, then the balance of payments deficit for 1955 was of the order of £35,000,000. A deficit of such magnitude would in any circumstances give cause for concern, arising as it did, not from the import of capital goods, but of goods for consumption. In addition, when we see it, as we must in the present instance, not in isolation but as part of a developing trend, it is one we cannot allow to continue.
The increase in the trade deficit was built up over the years to an accelerating degree. In the first quarter it was £3.8 million, in the second £5.4 million, in the third £9.7 million and in the last quarter £10.3 million. We must, on the one hand, remember that the early months of the year included replenishment of stocks. On the other hand, the trade balance in those months benefited from an abnormal increase, for that time of year, in exports of cattle at inflated prices. At the latter end of the year there was probably some advance buying of stocks in anticipation of price increases. Having allowed for these factors it is still clear that the growth of our adverse balance was on a rising scale over the year. That conclusion is reinforced by the most unsatisfactory figures for January, 1956, when, compared to a year previous, imports rose by £2.2 million while exports declined by £2.5 million, thereby disclosing an increased excess of £4.7 million. The figures for February, which came to hand to-day and show an adverse trade balance of £11 million—£2.3 million more than for February, 1955—afford no comfort.
This then is the picture, now sufficiently clear, of our balance of payments situation. My survey of the prospects for the year ahead must rest on the basis of last year's probable £35 million deficit, not as an isolated deficit, but as one likely to continue this year and even to grow unless other factors supervene. Proceeding from that basis, let us consider whether production, agricultural and industrial, will be increased this year to any material extent so that such increase would be available in whole or in part to redress the trade balance and, in conjunction with this, let us see how the world movement of prices is likely to affect our terms of trade.
All of us on every side of the House will agree that the primary aim and purpose of every Government, no matter of what Parties it may be composed, must be to create conditions in which there will be a real and lasting increase in agricultural and industrial production. We must concentrate on the efficient production of goods. That has been, is and will be the primary aim and object of this Government for without it there cannot be any hope of making our country prosperous, of increasing employment or of securing a permanent increase in the standard of living of all our people.
In particular, we must find export outlets for an increasing range and volume of home production, so that we may earn the means of paying for the high value of imports of raw materials and other goods needed to maintain and to improve our standard of living. This calls for improved organisation, more modern machinery, the elimination of out-of-date and inefficient methods, the relaxation of restrictive practices, the avoidance of stoppages of production and a climate in which capital and labour recognise their mutual interest, their duty to the country and the need for active cooperation.
It would, I feel, hardly be realistic to expect any great increase in the volume of our products available for export in the current year. That does not mean that we must not seek for export markets. On the contrary, we must be constantly vigilant in watching for openings for the sale of our goods to other countries. We must build up our production so that we will have, at world competitive prices, a larger and growing volume of products, agricultural and industrial, in excess of our home requirements with which to expand our export trade. While that must be our constant aim, in the immediate future the only significant increase in exportable output on which we can count is an increase of the order of 100,000 in the number of cattle. As against that, as we are all only too well aware, the price for both fat and store cattle exports has shown a serious decline compared to this time last year when prices were greatly inflated.