Fair enough. I think biscuits are a racket because of the enormous amount of advertising in relation to certain products. They are able to get certain commodities into certain types of biscuits and they are also able to extract out of the house-wife's purse substantial amounts which should not be extracted from her. The time has come when we must have a look at this advertising of products and the cost of the products advertised. We see the wrappers with 2d, 4d and 6d off. Off what? This is a dishonest effort to push up prices to the detriment of stability of prices. I would ask the Minister to investigate these items in which these reductions are offered. There must be dishonesty somewhere. We have the giant sized packets with the dwarf sized tubes. There must be a realistic price structure and prices must not be based on gimmicks.
Some brands of petrol are selling at 3½d and 5d a gallon less than other brands with the same octane rating. There must be something wrong here. Petrol companies with smaller sales have cheaper petrol. It should be the other way round. There should be an investigation into the price of petrol. Tyres, remoulds and new, 15 to 20 per cent less in some garages; the position is the same with regard to batteries. The motorist should be assured that no undue increases are being passed on to him and he should be assured of the justification for every increase. I believe the petrol companies could absorb some of the increase now passed on to the consumer. A garage grading scheme should be introduced in order to ensure reasonable service and a reasonable standard of service.
A review of the situation in regard to fruit and vegetables should result in a decrease in prices. That would help the lower income group. Somewhere between the producer and the consumer there are a great many highwaymen extracting large sums. It is the weaker sections who are hit the hardest, the very sections we are trying to help in this Budget. It is only right that the responsible Minister should take immediate action in regard to prices for the benefit of those weaker sections of our community. One can buy apples and pears for 4d each outside any football pitch. The same apples and pears in a shop beside the pitch cost 8d or 10d. The quality may not be identical, but I believe the margin of profit is out of all proportion. I would ask the House to have a look at this.
I come now to the extensive television coverage by way of advertisement for lager, spirits of one type or another, detergents and, in the past, cigarettes. These represent expenses for the housewife. I challenge some of the outrageous claims by detergent manufacturers in their television advertisements. They have reached the stage where, by an examination, prices could be reduced and this would further assist the section of our community which we have so ably assisted in the Budget.
We should make a very special plea to our people on this occasion to buy Irish goods: it is necessary and desirable. To maintain employment at home and, indeed, to extend employment at home, each and every person within the State should help by purchasing more Irish goods. Not only would this ensure more people in employment here but it would put more money into circulation. Then, when some future Minister for Finance would call upon any particular section of the community to make money available, we would have a greater yield because of our own efforts.
I noted, the other day, that some 30 million Christmas cards were sold here last year—90 per cent of which were imported. The average family spends approximately 18s on Christmas cards. If they spent an extra 5s on Irish-made Christmas cards it would mean an extra 300 people employed in the industry here. We should impress upon the public the necessity to purchase goods of Irish manufacture. As far as possible, we should get away from the outlets that are both producers and retailers because, at the moment, some of the products they are selling are questionable. I hope this matter will be followed up to ensure that whatever advantages can be passed on will be passed on by way of price reduction and that, through the purchase of Irish-made goods, we shall have an increase in the volume of employment, thereby making available more money for the Minister for Finance when he calls upon sections to "produce the goods".
I want to say a word about incomes. I congratulate the Minister on making available a tax relief. Small as it is, it will be of assistance. Following the Third Programme for Economic Expansion, the Minister for Labour has already set the machinery in motion. The Minister for Finance has done his part to assist the lower-paid worker: I have a deep interest in and the greatest sympathy for that section of our community. At all times, they are the victims. Every single sixpence or shilling increase they receive is taken into account in this city in the assessment of rents and in other ways. On the other hand, people in the upper income bracket, who have fantastic salaries, are cushioned so far as expenses are concerned. I read in one of yesterday's papers about a man with an income of £9,000 per annum who cribbed because he was losing £11 on the increased children's allowances. I do not know how that poor fellow manages to exist at all with his income of £9,000 per annum in view of that reduction of £11. As I say, that particular type of individual, and others in a slightly lower income bracket, is cushioned against overheads through expense accounts, business holidays, transport allowances, meal allowances and many other benefits.
May be we should have a very severe look at this particular section of the community to ensure that the benefits that are passed on from the development of our prosperity reach the lower-paid worker in the same proportion as those people in the upper income brackets. Possibly the bulk of the income of some of those persons is not taxable at all. Therefore, we should have a very severe look at the higher-paid income groups. I do not begrudge a man having a yacht, a race-horse, an interest in a golf club, and so on. He can have all these things but he must realise his responsibility to the other sections of the community and share out with the people who are really doing the work— the man on the floor who is doing the dirty work.
I want to welcome the small allowances given to the man who has no expense account, to the man whose every rise is syphoned-off by the local authority, if he lives in Dublin in a Corporation house, for example. Incomes and prices are two important factors in this community. Every effort should be made to ensure a square deal for the lower-paid worker—some-thing he has not been getting in the past. I am speaking now not merely for unskilled and the semi-skilled worker but also for the clerical worker and, in some cases, the craftsman. For too long, many of them have been receiving too little.
Coming now to the benefits the Minister is giving, the children's allowances will certainly make up in some way for the backward situation in which many people have found themselves over the years. A person with a very high income who may have to pay some money now as a result of the new framework of the children's allowances system really has nothing to crib about so far as the small reduction he will sustain is concerned. It is indeed remarkable that a man with a high income should have a grievance such as that of the man I mentioned who is getting somewhere around £9,000 per annum.
We must bear in mind that it was Fianna Fáil who introduced the children's allowances and that, down through the years, Fianna Fáil have always tried to ensure the provision of a satisfactory welfare policy. We have always been to the forefront with increases and improvements of one kind or another in social welfare benefits. On this occasion, the increases were substantial and that is in keeping with Fianna Fáil social welfare history. In the expanding and stable economy which we now enjoy, and with the various programmes outlined by Fianna Fáil, I trust our social welfare benefits will increase as the years go by to the level where the lower-paid worker will have no reason to complain.
The pension increases for non-contributory old age pensioners have been reasonable and we hope they will be still greater, according as our economy expands and our productive efforts enable us to do so. I am positive that this progressively improving assistance to the weaker sections of the community will continue for a long time. It has been happening since 1957, particularly in the case of the social welfare groups.
It was interesting to read the comment of Deputy T.F. O'Higgins after he had welcomed the improvements in children's allowances. He said: "They broke their heart with the 10s increase to old age pensioners." A lot of old age pensioners had broken hearts when they got tenpence a week when Deputy O'Higgins and his Coalition colleagues were in power. Many of them died bordering on starvation because of the increases these gentlemen gave them. On two occasions they gave average increases of tenpence to old age pensioners only, disregarding all other social welfare groups.
Deputy Corish welcomed the increase in the old age pensions but he said he could not imagine the lower-paid workers going wild. How wild did they go on tenpence a week? He was Minister for Social Welfare when the old age pensioners got that increase. Is this to be their socialism of the future, tenpence a week? Old age pensioners will not go wild if they get into power. When they had a majority here, the best Coalition groups could do was to increase old age pensions by tenpence a week and to disregard children's allowances and allowances to other social welfare groups.
On television, Deputy James Tully said that contributory pensions must be paid for. Of course, they must be paid for—everything must be paid for. I am glad to note that Fine Gael and Labour Members in the Dáil acted more responsibly than their members in the Dublin City Council. Here, at least, for the first time in ten years they measured up to their responsibilities in regard to the Budget provisions. They learned a lesson from their city council colleagues who refused to make money available to provide services for the weaker sections, for the people who not alone required additional income to purchase the necessaries of life, but who also required drugs and medical services of one kind or another and of which these gentlemen in the city council tried to deprive them.
I welcome the provision which removes the stamp duty from first purchase grant houses. It is a positive proof that the Government mean business in the matter of assisting young people who wish to purchase their own homes. It is a desirable step but it has not been referred to very often during the debate. The duration of the period for the operation of the free fuel scheme for necessitous persons has been extended from October to April and the Minister is to be congratulated on it. It shows his deep concern for old people in need of warmth during the winter months in Dublin city. The pressure brought to bear by me and by other Fianna Fáil Deputies in relation to this service has borne fruit and we welcome it heartily. If we couple this with the various other additional benefits this Budget provides for the old, these people can look forward to more decent standards in the future than have been provided in the past by mere promises. They can now look forward to improving benefits as prosperity increases in our expanding economy.
Public service pensioners also have got increases. Every Member of this Party has spoken about them and has made representations about them in recent years. I am particularly glad to notice the increases granted to those among them who are in greatest need, the longest retired.
Disabled persons have been given a concession in the form of 350 gallons of petrol per year free of the 4s duty in respect of their adapted vehicles. This was long overdue. The Minister could not have singled out a more deserving section of the community. This concession will lighten the burden of many disabled persons who had to travel distances on these vehicles. Most of them do not enjoy high salary or wage rates.
The Minister is also to be congratulated on improving old IRA pensions and on giving funeral grants in respect of men in receipt of special allowances. Many of those men who had served their country wisely and well received many knocks during their lives. Many of them became incapacitated and lost their businesses and their jobs as a result of their efforts during dark and difficult years. I am glad also that the Minister on this occasion remembered the widows of public servants who died before July, 1968, and who were not eligible under the pension scheme. Deputy Celia Lynch has fought for these people on many occasions and has impressed on us the need to support their justifiable claims.
The Minister did not forget the young people. He has made £100,000 available to promote recreational facilities of a sporting nature. This was long overdue. It is widely welcomed in my area, in the surrounding areas and I know that the portion of the amount that will come our way will be spent wisely and well on promoting sporting facilities for young people. Not sufficient emphasis has been placed in the past on the need for promoting recreational facilities. Much of the vandalism that has developed could be eliminated by a more active participation by each and every one of us in the affairs of young people rather than in an expression of condemnation of young people for what is sometimes termed irresponsible conduct when it is not so. We should assist these people in the manner in which the Minister has visualised they should be assisted, keep them out of bad company and assist in developing in them a better outlook towards life. Not only now but in the past has the Minister displayed an interest in this important section, our young people, and now that the ice has been broken I hope further concessions will be made so that we can eliminate the irresponsible section of our youth and segregate them from those who have no desire to participate in irresponsible activities.
There is also a very generous gesture from the Minister in regard to assisting employers to provide facilities for their employees by way of swimming pools, halls and tennis courts. This is a desirable step and it has generally been welcomed by responsible employers who have been making and will continue to make amenities available for their workers. These and the other concessions, which taken together are fairly comprehensive, have received fairly widespread support and I am quite sure that we can largely discount the few groans that we heard in the Dáil about the Budget, and from some people outside, who have vested interests.
Deputy Dillon made an attack on office block construction. I am very glad that the Minister has had due regard to the development of office blocks and has taxed this development. On the other hand, office blocks are desirable and necessary in order to ensure that workers in this city will no longer have to work in dark and dismal dungeons. We know that far too many employers have unfortunate trade unionists in clerical grades working in such dungeons and in insanitary and foul conditions. The office blocks which have been erected provide a very useful service and have in no way interfered with the development of the housing programme. We are aware of that from the assessments given to us by the people who are investing, that the money would be diverted not into the development of houses, but into other developments. It is necessary that we should have some development and this is a worthy development which is doing something to assist our weaker sections. We have in the city many employers who are now showing retributor gard for their workers and giving them the facilities to which they are justly entitled. If that is the only service they provide it is a very valuable service.
I should like to compliment, too, those Government agencies which have taken over office blocks. Why should State employees not have the best possible accommodation? Why should they have to operate in foul and filthy dungeons? Departments which have taken over office blocks and improved the lot of their workers have done something which is very desirable. The many employers who have taken over office blocks deserve a vote of thanks for looking after their workers, many of whom have been deprived of proper accommodation for so long. Recently the Second Stage of the Health Bill was passed in this House and this Bill is a further indication of our desire to assist the weaker sections of the community. The Bill is an expression in concrete terms of our desire to cater in a detailed way for those sections. The Bill proposes to abolish the dispensary system.
