asked the Minister for Lands if he will indicate the reason for the discontinuance of employment in the local forestry centre of a married man (name supplied) with a young dependent family in the Baltimore district, County Cork.
Ceisteanna-Questions Oral Answers. - Disemployment of Baltimore Forestry Worker.
15.
The man in question was one of two laid off when a contraction in the volume of work available made a staff reduction necessary.
Would the Minister not agree that this man was the most deserving applicant for the work in that forestry district? Would he not agree, in view of the fact that he is a young man with five or six children, to consider re-employing him without delay? I put it to the Minister that is a fair suggestion. I have made every effort privately to achieve that objective.
As I have informed the Deputy two men were laid off due to redundancy at that time. As regards this man being a very deserving case for work, outside his family circumstances the record before me does not indicate that he is a very desirable workman. Indeed, he appears to have been more interested in taking fishing holidays than in working at forestry.
That is the Minister's side of the story.
It is the side that has been given to me.