asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he is aware that a number of men in the town of Cavan were notified to report for work on a minor relief scheme in Cavan; whether the rate of pay offered for this work is 7d. per hour for an eight-hour day; whether each man will be limited to three days' work in the week; whether, at the rate of wages offered, workers cannot receive more than 14/- a week, and if he is aware that men in receipt of 12/6 a week unemployment assistance will actually receive while working on the scheme in question a net weekly income, after the cost of insurance stamps has been deducted, of 12/7, and whether, in these circumstances, the employment exchange will refuse benefit to unemployed persons who refuse to accept work under the conditions mentioned.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Cavan Relief Scheme.
In accordance with the usual procedure in such cases, the Department of Industry and Commerce, on request, supplied the Office of Public Works with lists of names of recipients of unemployment assistance resident in the town of Cavan. From these lists, the Office of Public Works selected men for employment on a scheme of works in the Cavan district outside the town of Cavan, and at the request of that office the local officer of the Department of Industry and Commerce notified the men so selected to attend for work at the appointed times and places. The Department of Industry and Commerce has no responsibility for the fixing of the wages to be paid for work on these and similar schemes, nor for the duration of the employment of the men employed; these matters are outside the control of that Department. No specific case of refusal of the work offered has come to my notice, and the last part of the question does not, therefore, arise at the moment. If such a question should arise, it would have to be determined in the manner prescribed by Section 20 of the Unemployment Assistance Act, 1933, as amended by the Act of 1935.