asked the Taoiseach if his Department have a record of the number of outworkers unemployed at present who are not included on the live register.
4.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Unemployment Statistics.
3.
asked the Taoiseach if his Department have a record of the number of professional persons who are unemployed and who are not included in the live register.
With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle I propose to take Questions Nos. 3 and 4 together. The data requested by the Deputy are not available. The only source of current information on unemployed persons are the administrative records of the Department of Social Welfare relating to persons who register at local offices, from which the live register figures are compiled.
Does the Parliamentary Secretary not consider it advisable and desirable that such information should be available and would he so advise the Department responsible for those statistics?
The only way I can help the Deputy is by telling him that data of professional and technical persons who classify themselves as out of work are available from the five yearly censuses of population but they are not comparable with the monthly live register totals.
Does this mean that the Government are unaware of the total number of people unemployed?
No. It means exactly what I have said. The Central Statistics Office does not compile this figure. The only data we have got on unemployment are the ones with which the Deputy is familiar.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary agree that the numbers involved are enormous?
I would not agree. The question of the unemployment or the under-employment of a professional man is not as easily assessed as the question of the self-employed or the unemployed on the live register.
Has the Parliamentary Secretary got the number of school leavers who are not included in the figures?
That is a separate question.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary not hazard a guess that the figure would be somewhere in the region of 30,000 between the two categories?
33,000.
The Parliamentary Secretary is unable to furnish the House with the total number of persons unemployed. The Government are unaware of the number because there are no statistics in regard to the two classes mentioned in the questions. In addition there are the school leavers and the people who are redundant and the people taking the AnCO training scheme. Could the Parliamentary Secretary give some indication of the colossal number of people who are not included in the live register but who are unemployed? Have the Government got these figures? Can they give a true reflection to the House of the total number of people unemployed?
That is a separate question.
Further arising——
I have allowed a lot of latitude on these questions. This must be the final supplementary.
Arising out of the Parliamentary Secretary's non-reply, are the Government at all concerned about the massive unemployment and the trend that unemployment is taking? Is it their attitude to sit there and say it is a separate matter?
Protected by the Chair.
I very much object to Deputy Collins's reflection on the Chair. I do not consider that you are protecting me. I have not asked you to protect me.
The Parliamentary Secretary should answer the questions he is being asked and not tell the Chair when a question is not in order.
I have answered the questions. I am tired of listening to the Deputy week after week insulting the Chair.
Question No. 5.
Arising out of the——
We cannot debate this matter at Question Time. Doubtless the Deputy will find another opportunity. Question No. 5.
I want clarification about this matter and I should like the Parliamentary Secretary to inform the House of the total number unemployed.
I have called the next question.
Protecting the Parliamentary Secretary who is hiding behind the Chair.
If the questions were framed in a different manner, would the Parliamentary Secretary be able to indicate the number of school leavers who are unemployed and who are now seeking employment, the number who are redundant, are taking part in training courses and, consequently, are not on the live register, and the other classes referred to by Deputy Fitzgerald in his question?
What the Deputy is asking is whether the Central Statistics Office would find it possible or useful to devise a different system for recording unemployment. That is a separate question and I would need notice of it.
The Parliamentary Secretary should answer the question.
In view of the unsatisfactory nature of the reply, I wish to give notice of my intention to raise the subject matter of this question on the Adjournment.
The Chair will communicate with the Deputy.
Using manpower funds to keep down unemployment.