asked the Minister for Agriculture if he is aware that County Wexford has again been included in the Group C areas by the Agricultural Wages Board in the current minimum rates order effective from 4th June, 1962; and that the western seaboard and congested counties are included in the same group; if the Board in coming to this decision has given consideration to the Report on Small Western Farms, which indicated that farm income prospects are much better in Leinster than in Connacht; if any action has been taken by the Board in relation to the wages areas since he was questioned on this subject on 10th June, 1958; and if he will arrange to forward copies of the Report on Small Western Farms to the Agricultural Wages Board.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Wexford Agricultural Wage Rates.
30.
The facts as stated in the first two parts of the question are correct but I would draw the Deputy's attention to an announcement in the public press on 30th October, 1962, that the Board, at a meeting on 25th October, decided that, when the necessity arises for the making of a new Order affecting minimum rates of wages to replace the existing Order, the present Group B will be extended so as to include Counties Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Tipperary, Limerick and the eastern part of County Cork, in addition to the districts already included in that group.
The considerations which have influenced the Agricultural Wages Board in the grouping of the counties for the purposes of their Orders are matters in which I have no function— these being entirely within the province of the board.
I understand that a copy of the report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on the problems of Small Western Farms has been available in the offices of the Board for some months past.