asked the Minister for Finance if he is aware that only married men with four or more children are at present eligible for relief work in Dublin; whether such regulation is due to the limited amount of money available for financing such relief work; and, if so, whether, in view of the acute unemployed situation in Dublin, the Government will make available to Dublin Corporation sufficient special employment grants to enable it to put many more unemployed persons to work, and thus make possible a relaxation of the regulation, particularly in the period before Christmas.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Relief Work Employment in Dublin.
Prior to the operation of the Social Welfare Act, 1952, the regulations governing the recruitment of unskilled workers for employment schemes provided that the employing authorities had a free selection of suitable labour from men in receipt of unemployment assistance. In submitting lists of men for work, employment offices, however, gave preference to the most necessitous persons, as measured by their unemployment assistance rates. The present arrangements provide that employment offices, when submitting lists of workmen, give preference to men with the greatest number of dependents, subject to the proviso that a person who already hada spell of employment on employment schemes within the previous 12 months would not be submitted for employment as long as other suitable unemployment assistance recipients were available on the register. I am advised that, since the 1st April last, it has been possible within the above-mentioned regulations to submit in Dublin for employment a number of persons having fewer dependents than are referred to in the Deputy's question. As regards the last part of the question, I would refer the Deputy to my statements on the Estimates discussions on Vote 10 on the 22nd and 27th October, and the reply to his question of yesterday's date on the subject of grants for employment schemes in Dublin.