asked the Minister for Finance whether he is aware that two distinct rates of wages are being paid by Leix County Council to men engaged on bog drainage, namely, that men whose wages are provided fully out of local rates are paid 30/- per week, and men doing similar work (the cost of which is borne in whole or in part out of State grants) are paid 27/- per week; whether he will state the grounds on which the local authority is required to pay the workers in the latter category at lower rates than other men doing the same work, and, whether he will state the authority under which his Department insists on reducing rates of wages for this kind of work below the rate recognised and paid by the local authority.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Rates of Wages in Leix.
The Minister is not aware that the county council are paying two distinct rates of wages to their workmen engaged on bog drainage in County Laoighis. The drainage work to which the Deputy refers, and on which the workers are paid at the rate of 27/- per week, is probably one of the minor employment schemes carried out by the Office of Public Works. On works of this class financed from the Employment Scheme Vote, the standard rate of wages in all parts of the country is 27/- per week.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say why the Government compels farmers to pay 30/- per week to labourers employed in the same county doing the same kind of work?
That, quite definitely, is not a question for me, nor does it arise out of this question.
That is a matter for the Chair, I think.