asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that the Agricultural Wages Board have recently reduced the value of adult farm workers' board allowances from 6/7 to 5/10 per day in the Group A areas, from 6/5 to 5/10 per day in the Group B areas, and from 6/3 to 5/10 per day in the Group C areas, although the cost-of-living index has increased by at least 9% since May, 1956; and if, having regard to the statement made in a reply of 10th December, 1958, that the Taoiseach could not accept the assumption that, in the Agricultural Wages (Minimum Rates) Order, 1956, meals and other benefits were charged for at excessive rates, he will now arrange to have an estimate of the average daily cost to farmers of providing farm workers' diet compiled by the Central Statistics Office.
Written Answers. - Farm Workers' Board Allowances.
As to the first part of the question, the comparisons which the Deputy seeks to establish are not altogether valid. In the Orders made by the Agricultural Wages Board fixing minimum rates of wages, values are prescribed for certain perquisites for the purpose of computing the wages paid to agricultural workers receiving such perquisites. In these Orders up to now no distinction was made as between the man who got board and lodging and the man who was boarded only. In the most recent Order lodging has been valued separately and corresponding adjustments made in the value of board allowances.
Sub-section (3) of Section 17 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936 empowers the Agricultural Wages Board to define the benefits or advantages which may be reckoned as payment of wages in lieu of payment in cash and the values at which they are to be reckoned and it is not my function to intervene in these matters. I do not, therefore, propose to ask the Central Statistics Office to undertake the investigation suggested by the Deputy in the second part of the question.