asked the Minister for Finance whether in connection with the reply given by him to a question on the 14th April, 1948, regarding the granting of a weekly half-holiday with pay to workers employed in the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park, Killarney, in which he stated that the workers concerned are paid on the basis of awards made by the Agricultural Wages Board, he is aware that the type of work on which these men are employed is mainly of a forestry nature and that their counterparts on similar State-controlled schemes are granted this half-holiday with pay, and if, in view of these circumstances, he will take steps to ensure that this concession is now granted to these men as soon as possible.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Half-Holiday for Workers.
The employees at Bourn Vincent Memorial Park are a miscellaneous group; a few are, perhaps, employed on work mainly of a forestry nature. While I am aware that forestry workers such as those employed by the Department of Lands get a weekly half-holiday, I do not agree that for merely that reason the employees of the Commissioners of Public Works at the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park should be given the same concession. As intimated in my reply to the Deputy on the 14th April last, I am not prepared to anticipate a decision on the general question of a weekly half-holiday for farm workers. In the light of whatever decision may be given on that question, I shall consider fully the case of the employees at the Bourn Vincent Memorial Park.
Mr. Flynn
Is the Parliamentary Secretary aware that there are approximately 40 men employed on that estate, and of those 40 there are eight directly employed as agricultural workers? Is he further aware that these men should never have been classed as agricultural workers because the greater number of them are employed in forestry work, which is not agricultural work? Is he further aware that on the same estate there is a forestry branch directly controlled by the Forestry Department and that the men employed in that forestry work are given this half-day— that they enjoy this half-day each week? In these circumstances, and in justice to these men, will the Parliamentary Secretary reconsider the whole matter with a view to giving them the half-day to which they are entitled? I should like to say that whoever graded these men as agricultural workers does not know what agricultural work means. There is no analogy.
The Deputy must conclude his speech now.
I am afraid that the Deputy has been misinformed in this matter. My information is that there are only four of that group of 40 who could in any way be classed as forestry workers. There is a head woodman and three woodmen who may be described as forestry workers. How could one expect that for the sake of these four the whole number should get away with something that the agricultural worker is not getting away with at the present time? They are all actually agricultural workers, with the exception of these four.
Mr. Flynn
I reiterate my statement, and I claim that my figures are correct —that there are only eight agricultural workers on the whole estate. The Parliamentary Secretary's figures are not correct, whoever supplied him with that information.
I will make further inquiries.
What class of work are these men doing?
The group working there includes garden hands, dairy hands, farmhands, gamekeepers, and caretakers.
Will the Parliamentary Secretary say if the four forestry workers get the half-day?
That is a ticklish one.
We got over greater difficulties than that.
If the Deputy puts down a question, he will receive an answer in due course.