asked the Minister for Agriculture is he is aware (a) that the Agricultural Wages Board have adopted standing orders which have the effect of preventing the four workers' representatives from requisitioning meetings of the board on their own collective motion and (b) that the board have consistently refused to amend their standing orders so as to enable the workers' representatives so to requisition meetings; and if in view of this unsatisfactory state of affairs he will make regulations to enable the workers' representatives to requisition meetings on their own motion.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Agricultural Wages Board.
I am informed by the board that one of their standing orders provides, should the necessity arise, for the calling of a special meeting on the written requisition of any five of the 11 ordinary members of the board. This procedure was invoked on only one occasion in the course of the last 20 years. Suggestions for its alteration have been considered on two recent occasions but each time a majority of the members favoured the retention of the existing rule. I am informed that normally no difficulty arises about meetings of the board which are held sufficiently frequently for the proper discharge of its functions under the Act. I can see no adequate ground for taking action with a view to the alteration of this rule of the board.
asked the Minister for Agriculture whether the Agricultural Wages Board have made standing orders under Section 11 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936, prescribing the procedure to be observed prior to the making of an Agricultural Wages Order and providing for (a) the publishing of the board's proposals, and (b) prescribing the manner in which and the time within which objections to the proposals may be lodged.
asked the Minister for Agriculture whether he will make regulations under Section 11 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936, in relation to the procedure of the Agricultural Wages Board (a) requiring the board to give public notice of proposals to vary rates of wages before making an order, and (b) prescribing the manner in which and the time within which objections to the proposals may be lodged.
I propose, with the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, to reply to Questions Nos. 19 and 20 together.
The answer in each case is "No." The procedure to be observed by the Agricultural Wages Board prior to the making of an order fixing minimum rates of wages is already prescribed in Section 17 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936.