asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that unemployment benefit is being withheld by his Department in respect of workers who received unemployment stamps whilst working on the construction of a bank on the Fergus near Newmarket-on-Fergus, Co. Clare; if he will state the reason for withholding such benefit, and the date his Department decided such work was non-insurable.
CEISTEANNA—QUESTIONS. ORAL ANSWERS. - CLARE UNEMPLOYMENT CLAIMS.
I would refer the Deputy to the reply given on the 13th November last to Deputy Corish in which I stated that employment under the Office of Public Works or the Department of Lands and Agriculture on the work of improving agricultural lands by drainage is not insurable under the Unemployment Insurance Acts. In the case of a number of men employed last year by the Land Commission in the reconstruction of an embankment on the River Fergus for the purpose of reclaiming agricultural land, contributions under the Unemployment Insurance Acts were paid in error. As the work was not insurable, my Department had no legal power to place those contributions to the credit of the men for whom they had been erroneously paid nor to pay benefit in respect of them, but application for the return of their value may be made by the persons concerned within the prescribed period of three years from the date on which the contributions were paid.
Mr. HOGAN
Will the Minister say when it became one of the functions of the Board of Works to engage in occupations of an agricultural nature?
In so far as matters of drainage are concerned it is one of their functions.
Mr. HOGAN
Is the Minister aware that this drainage was constructed on the banks of the river, that it is not a case of drainage, but a case of keeping the river in its bed?
The principle upon which each case has been decided is that if the work confers a benefit on land it is counted as agricultural work and is not insurable.
Would the workers in a manure factory be insurable?
That is a point that a lawyer might argue before a legal tribunal. But on the decisions so far given this particular type of work is not an insurable occupation.