asked the Minister for Agriculture the specific statutory authority which enables the Agricultural Wages Board to prescribe special rates of wages for Sundays; and if the authority also enables the Board to prescribe special rates for agricultural work on St. Patrick's Day.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Wages of Agricultural Labourers.
30.
The Agricultural Wages Board is empowered by the provisions of Section 17 of the Agricultural Wages Act, 1936, to fix minimum rates of wages in the various ways indicated in that section. The Board has fixed special hourly rates for work done on Sundays under that section, pursuant to a power in that section to fix differential rates for overtime.
As regards St. Patrick's Day, I am advised that that section would not easily lend itself to a prescription of special rates on the same basis by the Board in respect of work done on that day.