asked the Taoiseach whether the Government have decided on any permanent measures with a view to reducing substantially within the next three months the grave unemployment figures, and, if so, if he will state the nature of such proposals; further if, in view of the fact that the winter relief scheme grants to local authorities have been cut by over 60 per cent. as compared with last year, he will state whether proposals exist to deal with the unemployment emergency pending the fruition of permanent proposals.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Position.
With regard to the first part of the Deputy's question, I have already, in reply to questions addressed to me in this House on the 24th October, 1956, referred to the Government's aim and policy of promoting an expanding economy and increased employment, to the Government's practical, constructive programme directed towards those ends which I publicly announced on the 5th October, 1956, and to the steps that have been and are being taken to carry that programme into effect.
The measures included in the Government's programme are, in fact, permanent measures designed and calculated to bring about a lasting reduction in unemployment and a lasting and progressive increase in productive employment. We do not claim for them that they will effect a substantial reduction in unemployment within a short period, such as the period of three months referred to in the Deputy's question. It would, no doubt, be possible, if the necessary money were available, to put a considerably increased number of persons to work within a short period on unproductive schemes of a relief character. This, however, could be done only at the expense of a grave threat to the solvency of the State; the employment so provided would be temporary and short-lived; and the prospect of promoting an expanding economy would not, in consequence, be improved but, rather, would be seriously impaired.
In reply to the second part of the Deputy's question, I would refer to the reply given to a question addressed to the Minister for Finance by the Deputy on the 25th October, 1956, in the course of which he was informed that the proposed State expenditure in the financial year ending the 31st March, 1957, on employment schemes of local authorities towards which money is provided out of the Employment and Emergency Schemes Vote amounts to £265,000, as compared with expenditure amounting to £317,071 in the year ended the 31st March, 1956. This represents a reduction, due to the necessity, in present financial circumstances, of limiting public expenditure on non-productive works; but the reduction is not one of 60 per cent., as stated by the Deputy, but, rather, of 16 per cent.
Is the Taoiseach telling the House that his remedy for the grave uneconomic distress which prevails throughout the country is to set up more commissions, with more sinecures and a larger corps of functionaries, battening on the economy of the State?
I am saying nothing of the sort.
That is what the Taoiseach's answer amounts to.
Order!
The Deputy knows perfectly well I am saying nothing of the sort——
That is the Taoiseach's remedy for our present ills.
——and if the Deputy and those behind him would carry into effect the lip-service they say they are giving to help the Government in the serious financial conditions affecting the country rather than try to make small political points for political purposes, we would get along much better.
More jobs for the boys.
What boys?
Sixty per cent.!
Order!
Is the Taoiseach aware that he has just informed the 55,000 unemployed and their families that, for the next two years, they have nothing to look forward to but hunger and unemployment?
I have just informed those who are unemployed that they have some hope of permanent productive employment in the future.
Will the plans the Taoiseach has now be more effective from the point of view of reducing unemployment than the plans he was supposed to have two years ago?
Order! Question No. 3.