I asked the Minister a question to-day in connection with the employment grant for Mornington. I would not bring up this question on the adjournment if I did not know that there is, and has been for some time, a very unsatisfactory state of affairs with regard to the administration of the relief grant in Mornington, County Meath. At the outset, I should like to say that this is not a question of Party politics. The people in Morning ton from whom I received complaints were representative of all shades of political opinion.
It is necessary for me, with the permission of the Chair, to run briefly over the developments in Mornington in the past few years. The means of livelihood for nearly all the people in that district lie between mussel raising in the winter and salmon fishing in the spring and later. Some years ago when quite a brisk export trade was done in mussels between Mornington and Bristol, complaints were received from the public health authorities as to the pollution of the mussels. These complaints were investigated and were found in the main to be correct. On representations being made the Department of Fisheries considered the construction of a purifying tank and it was agreed that the tank should be at a place in Howth. I may say in passing that the purifying tank has not yet been completed.
At the same time a certain section of the Nanny waters was passed as being a suitable place to re-lay mussels lifted from the Boyne. The public health authorities agreed that this would suffice to satisfy the British public health authorities. This section of the river has been recently purchased by a man to whom I will refer as Mr. X. He is a conservator of fisheries. The purifying tank in Howth has not yet been constructed. Because of that delay the mussel fishers had no opportunity of rendering their mussels marketable and the only way in which they could dispose of them was by selling them to Mr. X. This made the mussel fishermen dependent for their livelihood upon a monopoly. They were confined to selling to Mr. X.
The economic war then started and the mussel industry was affected like every other industry. A heavy import duty was imposed on mussels and this brought about a state of affairs which led the Government to allocate a sum of £300 for the relief of unemployment in that district. This grant was allocated in 1932-33 and also in 1933-34. The foreman appointed to superintend the work and distribute the grant was Mr. X. The complaints that we are making now are not new. They have been going on for a number of years. These are the grievances of which they complain:—(1) that Mr. X. a fishery conservator, is the foreman in charge of the relief grant; (2) that Mr. X., doubtless a keen businessman, got a monopoly of this business of the mussel trade; (3) unfair discrimination has been used in taking on the men for the relief work to the partial exclusion of other men more entitled to the work. Examples are as follow:—(a) a man employed by the British and Irish Steamship Company gets work on the grant and is a relative of the foreman; (b) another relative who lives in Laytown, three miles away, has been employed on the grant; (c) another relative who works on the foreman's land and is employed as a carrier for him has been employed on this grant; (d) a brother-in-law of Mr. X. has also been employed on the relief grant in Mornington.
The work finishes each year about February 12th. Last year certain men were kept on for a further three weeks or more, and many of these were relatives of Mr. X., and some of the men while actually engaged in salmon fishing were working for a limited number of weeks on the grant. A memorial was signed by nine people and sent on to us. I investigated it, and my information is that there are several others affected who are unwilling to come forward for obvious reasons. The case has been made by the Minister that his inspector reported that four of them lived at Donnycarney; two others had relatives who got work on the relief scheme, and one was sorry he signed the memorial. The motive for the latter statement is quite obvious. My reason for raising the matter is because an injustice has been done. Even though the grant is over and finished with now. I suggest that it is necessary in the interests of justice that an inquiry should be instituted in order to ascertain the facts. If there is no truth in the memorial, which is extremely unlikely, Mr. X. will be vindicated, and I am ready to apologise to him for being led into a wrong attitude. I have no desire to cause trouble to anybody, but the situation has been represented to me in such a way that I had no alternative but to urge an investigation. I appeal to the Minister to institute an inquiry into these grants. As a last word I would ask him and urge on him to expedite the construction of the purifying tank at Howth.
