asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware that, owing to the inadequacy of the present butter ration, manual workers are unable to give their normal return of daily work; and if, as this situation causes great national loss, he will state what are the prospects of increasing the butter ration at an early date.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Butter and Bread Rations.
The butter stocks will not at present permit of an increase in the existing ration but it is hoped to increase the ration at an early date.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce whether he has yet devised a scheme for the provision of an extra ration of bread for persons who are employed on the cutting of turf and who are obliged to take their meals away from home.
Turf workers who are employed by farmers and who reside at least two miles from the place of their employment are granted extra rations of bread provided they receive no meals from their employer and are obliged to take bread meals with them to their work. Turf workers employed by county councils and by industrial concerns are also eligible for the extra allowances, which have been fixed at 3 lb. of bread per week per person.
Would the Minister say whether that extra ration of bread could not be made available for self-employed turf cutters?
There is no supplementary ration for self-employed workers of any class.
Bearing in mind that many turf-cutters have to travel considerable distances from their homes to the bogs in which they work, it would obviously be to their advantage to provide them with an extra ration. If they have to interrupt their work to go home in order to get their rations, it will interfere with turf-cutting operations. Where there is evidence that the bogs are situate a long distance from the homes of the persons concerned, would the Minister be prepared to consider such cases with a view to granting these persons a supplementary ration?
Self-employed persons are within limits able to determine their own conditions of employment. The Deputy will appreciate that it would be completely impossible to check the claims of persons self-employed in any occupation for an additional bread ration.
Would the Minister not meet the case where a man leaves his home in a rural area and has to walk three or four miles to a bog and must have his meals on the bog? Is it not clearly preferable to give him an extra ration of bread rather than compel him to travel that distance home in order to partake of the home ration?
That is not the point. This is a regular ration given week by week, subject to the conditions remaining static week after week. The fact that a man went to work one week at one occupation and another week at another occupation would not permit him to obtain a supplementary ration in a particular week and not draw it another week. It would be administratively impossible to distribute supplementary bread rations on a day-to-day basis
Is is not obviously inequitable that, where men are working on a particular bog, one man should get an extra ration while another man does not, that one man cannot get it because he is self-employed while another can because he is employed by a county council or by a farmer?
If the Deputy wants equity in the matter, the only common basis of operation would be to withdraw it from everybody, but I think it reasonable to give an additional ration to persons employed for wages in conditions of employment which are not determined by them and where their employment is of a continuous character.
The cases I have in mind are those of persons who do not work for wages but who have to haul the turf to the City of Dublin.