asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that the Benduff and Madranna Slate Quarries, in which forty-five men are engaged, are likely to close down unless immediate relief of some sort is forthcoming; that a large sum on extending the plant was recently expended on the promise that preference would be given to their products in connection with Gaeltacht housing schemes; that in a housing scheme recently carried out in the Gaeltacht of the Macroom area imported slates were used, and if in similar schemes in the future in the Gaeltacht of the County Cork the Minister would take the necessary steps to see that the products of these quarries get preferential treatment?
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Closing Down of Madranna (Cork) Slate Quarries.
I am not aware that there is any likelihood of the Benduff and Madranna Slate Quarries closing down in the near future, and no intimation of any such intention on the part of the proprietors has been received in my Department. My Department is taking up with the other Government Departments concerned the matter of the more extensive utilisation of native materials in house-building operations assisted out of State funds.