asked the Minister for Social Welfare if he will treat all islanders on the Donegal coast as unsuitable for turf production work and thereby obviate the necessity of disallowing them unemployment assistance.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Payment of Unemployment Assistance.
No offers of employment on turf work in connection with Bord na Móna hostel schemes, to which I presume the Deputy refers, are at present being made by local officers of my Department to islanders on the Donegal coast. The islanders are, however, free to apply for such work should they so desire.
Is the Minister aware that a number of applicants for unemployment assistance have been refused such assistance because they rejected employment with Bord na Móna on work of which they have absolutely no experience?
Would the Deputy say when that happened?
Within the past three weeks.
If the Deputy will let me have particulars of that I will be glad to investigate these matters, but the position at the moment is that no offer of employment with Bord na Móna is being made by local officers of my Department to islanders on the Donegal coast. Bord na Móna at the moment, I think, have recruited, or are on the eve of recruiting, their full immediate requirements. If, however, islanders want to work in Bord na Móna hostel schemes they are quite eligible to apply for work in such schemes.