asked the Minister for Education if his attention has been drawn to statements made at a recent meeting of the County Cork Vocational Committee when Father Daly, P.P., of Eyeries, referred to the increasing number of young girls from our rural districts seeking employment in England, and commented on the inability of such girls, owing to lack of training, to take up ordinary domestic work, and if the Minister will undertake, in connection with the local vocational committees, to increase the facilities for the instruction and training of such girls so as to equip them properly to take up domestic positions abroad.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Domestic Training.
I agree that it is very desirable to provide suitable instruction and training for girls who take up domestic service, and my Department is always prepared to consider proposals by vocational education committees for providing facilities for such instruction, but I do not accept the view expressed in the latter part of the question that training facilities should be increased specially to equip girls to take up domestic or other positions abroad rather than at home.
Do I understand from the Minister that he does not wish to encourage emigration or to fit out girls as subjects for emigration? At the same time the Minister will understand that this creates a rather difficult seaboard problem as distinct from a Gaeltacht problem. Would it be possible to say or promise that any suggestions made by local vocational committees will have the Minister's approval?
That is a separate question.
But it arises very directly.