asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he will state (a) the date on which the current Employment Regulation Order relating to the food preserving industry came into operation, (b) the names of the employers' trade unions and workers' trade unions represented on the Food Preserving Joint Labour Committee established under the Industrial Relations Act, 1946, (c) if any semi-State body, public company or corporation sought exemption from the scope of the current Employment Regulation Order, and, if so, the name or names thereof and the grounds on which exemption was sought, (d) the date on which the appropriate decision was made, (e) the approximate number of workers covered by the current Employment Regulation Order and the ordinary adult minimum hourly rate, and (f) the date on which the draft Employment Regulation Order was confirmed by the Labour Court.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Food Preserving Industry: Employment Regulation Order.
Under the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act, 1946, the establishment of Joint Labour Committees and the making of Employment Regulation Orders are functions of the Labour Court. I would, therefore, suggest that the Deputy should address his inquiries direct to the court.
Would it not be more courteous towards Deputies for the Minister to secure the information? I am sure it will be easily available to him at the Labour Court. Or is the Minister afraid of facing the fact that there were Irish as well as British based unions involved in the negotiating licence with Major General Costello?
The Deputy's question was not directed to any particular application. I want to assure the Deputy that I intended no discourtesy. Neither am I afraid to disclose any information I have in my possession. I am sure the Deputy will appreciate as well as I do that the Labour Court should be an autonomous body so far as we can make it so and that there should be a minimum of interference by me in the discharge of their functions. He should know full well that the information he sought relates to functions which are peculiarly within the competence and province of the Labour Court.
The Labour Court can refuse to answer me, if they feel like it and I have no means of getting the information from them.
The Minister is not asked for an opinion but merely for information. Would the Minister say whether or not the officials of the Labour Court are officers of his?
They are officers of my Department. The question refers to the Labour Court, which is a body set up by statute here, and I am sure the two Deputies who have raised the supplementary questions know and appreciate better than I do that the Labour Court should be permitted to perform its functions without any interference by me.
There is no suggestion of interference by the Minister or by the Deputy who put down the question. Surely it is not unreasonable to ask that the Minister should get this information from the Labour Court and give it to the Dáil by way of answer to Parliamentary Question?
I suggest that the Deputies should get it themselves.
That is a wrong approach.