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Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 20 May 1943

Vol. 90 No. 4

Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Employment Relief Regulations.

asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that unemployed town workers in Dungarvan have been ordered to report for work on a relief scheme four or five miles outside the town, under penalty of having their benefits discontinued; whether the rate of pay on the relief scheme is 5/4d. per day, while the rate payable to men casually employed on agricultural work in the district is 8/-per day; whether the starting time on the relief job is 8.15 a.m. and whether these men must, therefore, leave home at 7 a.m.; whether work is available on the relief scheme for only four days per week for the men sent there from the employment exchange; and whether, in the circumstances, he will issue instructions that men living in Dungarvan must not be required to take rotational employment under the conditions outlined.

The scheme to which the Deputy refers is a Minor Employment Scheme undertaken by Waterford County Council in the townland of Ballyharahan, which is three miles from Dungarvan town. The functions of my Department in connection with these schemes are confined to the submission of suitable recipients of unemployment assistance and to the notification of men selected by the employing authority of the time and place at which they are to report for work. The rate of wages paid to workmen, the hours of work, the area from which workers are to be recruited and the period of employment allotted to each man are matters entirely for the authority carrying out the work.

In view of the fact that the site of the work in question is within easy reach of Dungarvan town it is not proposed to issue the instructions suggested by the Deputy. Where, however, a workman refuses any employment offered on the ground that the work is unsuitable for him the full facts of his case are considered before any decision which might affect payment of unemployment assistance to him is made.

The rate of wages paid by farmers to casual agricultural workers in the district of Ballyharahan is six shillings per day.

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