asked the Minister for Finance if he will state (a) the nature of essential and useful public work which he stated in the course of his Budget speech was held up because of the fact that of 73 recipients of unemployment assistance who were detailed by the employment exchange for the work, only nine turned up on the job; (b) the place in which the work was to be carried out; (c) the distances which each person who did not attend for work was required to walk from his place of residence to the place of employment; (d) the period of employment offered to the persons detailed for employment and (e) the rates of wages offered for employment on the work.
Ceisteanna.—Questions. Oral Answers. - Work Offered to Unemployment Assistance Recipients
(a) The work in question is the northern section of the River Suck Arterial Drainage Scheme; (b) in this section separate gangs are employed at the following points of the river:—(1) Townland of Frenchlawn, four miles south of Castlerea; (2) Townland of Tawnyrover, three miles north of Castlerea; (3) Townland of Cloonchamber, three and a half miles west of Castlerea; (c) without ascertaining the exact situation of each workman's dwelling it is not possible to give the precise distance at which he lives from the work; (d) the period of employment for each workman is fixed with reference to the value of his unemployment assistance payments and beef vouchers; (e) the scale of wages for unskilled labourers is 24/- per week, i.e., the standard rate paid for arterial drainage schemes in County Roscommon.
Would the Parliamentary Secretary say what is the approximate distance these men would require to travel to and from their work? That is an important consideration in view of the statement by the Minister for Finance in his Budget speech.
The distance would vary very considerably. It is within my knowledge that a very considerable number of those who did not attend for work live in a townland the whole of which by road is less than three miles away. There were cases where schemes of this kind were carried through and certain townlands were specified in which the area of recruiting may be four or five miles to the townland where the work was carried out; very often there were cases where men in some parts of those townlands might be six miles distant from the work. Our experience has been that it is difficult and unfair to limit too strictly the area of recruitment because we always have experience of men who desire to go to work from distances considerably longer than we specify at the employment exchanges.